Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Urban Health Centers at KK – a great idea' that was published in In New Bombay

Urban Health Centers at KK – a great idea

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has started developing two urban health centers at Koparkhairane with the intention of providing better healthcare services in the city. Now this is a good news.

The civic body is spending a total of Rs 4.20 crore for these projects. The health centers are being developed at sector 14 and sector 16. Both the premises will be ground plus one storied buildings. NMMC has been asked to finish the constructions within ten months. So the buildings should be ready by January next year.

There was urgent need of two more urban centres in Koparkhairane node since the population over here has risen considerably. These urban centres will have all the facilities including the reception and the medical officer’s chamber, a laboratory, waiting lobby, registration hall, store room and a conference hall at each of the premises..

There are a total of 23 urban health centers in Navi Mumbai. Discussions are going on to develop a few more at some of the populated nodes.

A huge number of residents of this node are lower middle class and poor people and cannot go to the private hospitals for medical check-ups. The urban health centers are big help for these people.

Urban Health Centres are state-owned urban health care facilities in India. They are essentially single-physician clinics usually with facilities for minor surgeries, too. They are part of the government-funded public health system in India and are the most basic units of this system.

Apart from the regular medical treatments, these centers have some special focuses. Infant immunization programs: Immunization for newborns under the national immunization program is dispensed through the PHCs. This program is fully subsidized. Anti-epidemic programs: The PHCs act as the primary epidemic diagnostic and control centres for the rural India. Whenever a local epidemic breaks out, the system's doctors are trained for diagnosis. They identify suspected cases and refer for further treatment. Birth control programs: Services under the national birth control programs are dispensed through the PHCs. Sterilization surgeries such as vasectomy and tubectomy are done here. These services, too, are fully subsidised. Pregnancy and related care: A major focus of the PHC system is medical care for pregnancy and child birth in rural India. This is because people from rural India resist approaching doctors for pregnancy care which increases neonatal death. Hence, pregnancy care is a major focus area for the PHCs. Emergencies: All the PHCs store drugs for medical emergencies which could be expected in rural areas. For example antivenoms for snake bites, rabies vaccinations, etc.

The eight elements of primary health care are focused upon: Provision of medical care, Maternal-child health including family planning, Safe water supply and basic sanitation, Prevention and control of locally endemic diseases, Collection and reporting of vital statistics, Education about health, National health programmes, as relevant, Referral services, Training of health guides, health workers, local dais and health assistants and Basic laboratory workers.

So NMMC needs to be commended for its idea of coming up with two more Urban Centres.