An ambitious project has been launched to improve the primary health system in Pune district. Apart from upgrading the existing 102 primary health centres, another 12 are being added and funds to the tune of Rs 26 crore have been raised to strengthen the healthcare services.
Ayush Prasad, CEO of Pune Zilla Parishad, told The Indian Express that primary health centres are the bedrock of public health. “Over the past one year, Pune Zilla Parishad has identified infrastructure required in PHCs as per the standards set up by National Quality Assurance Survey, ISO, PHC manual, various national guidelines and state government resolutions. We conducted an extensive gap analysis through self-assessment, cross assessment and visit of district teams. We realised that though the equipment may seem small, it has a big impact on health services,” Prasad said. As part of the gap analysis, teams were sent to Delhi, Bengaluru, Kerala, Telangana and other states to study the best practices followed at primary healthcare facilities.
During a review in September last year, a plan of Rs 21 crore was presented to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. With the help of CSR funds from companies such as John Deere, Wipro, Honeywell, L&T and taking the equipment from Jumbo Facilities, plans were made to develop a few more PHCs and purchase medical equipment.
“The Deputy CM also instructed us to further focus on institutional strengthening like we are doing with 18 items for schools, 32 items for Anganwadis, 114 new gram panchayat buildings and ground water and surface water source strengthening. We budgeted ?5cr, but the entire demand was only ?4.25 crore. Unnecessary purchases and duplication was prevented. We have also purchased necessary furniture along with medical instruments. All the existing and the 12 new proposed PHCs would have every infrastructure required. Pune now has the most number of PHCs in any district of India,” Prasad claimed.
The ZP is also repairing PHCs by spending Rs 4.89 crore from DPDC this year. These are minor repairs from improving tiles in washrooms, to changing lights, to plastering to waterproofing to painting. Recently, at an exhibition of equipment purchased to strengthen the PHCs, Pawar had expressed hope that the Pune model would be emulated. He had said that the Covid pandemic has shown how crucial it is to have good infrastructure.
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Instruments like ECG machine, pulse oximeter, mobile spot light, oxygen concentrator, foetal doppler, laryngoscope are among the various devices purchased.
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Anuradha MascarenhasAnuradha Mascarenhas is a senior editor with The Indian Express, Pune.... read more