Pillar: Connectivity
Kolkata Y-POWER Score: 62.8 / 100 — ranked 1 of 23 in West Bengal.
A Primary Health Centre (PHC) is the first rural health institution staffed by a Medical Officer. The Indian Public Health Standards 2022 set its population norm at 30,000 in the plains and 20,000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas. A Community Health Centre (CHC) is the block-level referral hospital above the PHC, with a norm of 1,20,000 in the plains and 80,000 in hilly and tribal areas; it has 30 beds and four specialists (surgeon, physician, obstetrician-gynaecologist, paediatrician). Between them, PHCs and CHCs form the backbone of the public health system in rural India. For a young person, these are where maternal care, immunisations, tuberculosis and non-communicable disease…
If someone in your family needs medical care and cannot afford a private clinic, the PHC and CHC are what the public system provides. Knowing whether they actually work — whether the doctor is present, whether medicines are in stock, whether the ambulance comes — is the difference between a health crisis that is managed and one that is not.
- Out-patient department for general curative care, at least during notified hours - Round-the-clock emergency care at CHC; 24×7 delivery and basic emergency obstetric care at designated PHCs - Antenatal, natal, and postnatal care including institutional deliveries and referral for complicated cases - Universal Immunisation Programme for children; routine Mission Indradhanush catch-up rounds - National disease control programmes: TB (NTEP), malaria, leprosy, vector-borne, NCDs, mental health screening - Laboratory diagnostics, blood tests, urine, sputum microscopy; some with digital X-ray at CHC - Free Diagnostics Service Initiative (FDSI): NHM operational guidelines issued in July 2015 to…
Portal: nhm.gov.in and state health department dashboards; Ayushman Bharat AAM locator on ab-hwc.nhp.gov.in Also: Every block headquarters has a CHC; ask ASHA / ANM / Anganwadi worker for nearest PHC. Facility locations are also on the district NIC website.
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