State starts health centres in districts

Mumbai: In order to provide health facilities to rural people, the state government has started Health Wellness Centres (HWCs) in every district of Maharashtra. This is in association with the central government’s plan to convert primary healthcare centres (PHCs) into HWCs, inaugurated Thursday.

In this, 10,668 sub-centres of the state, 605 civil primary health centres, and 1,828 rural health sub-centres have been converted into HWCs.

There is a lack of awareness among people living in rural areas of Maharashtra about mental health, cancer and tuberculosis.

The HWCs have been started on an experimental basis at the district level to ensure immediate diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The state government launched the HWCs in April 2017. Initially, 30 health sub-centres were started in the Palghar and Nashik districts.

Dr Anup Kumar Yadav, commissioner, Health Services, said, “Thirteen types of health services will be provided in these health centres. A team doctor, nurse and health workers will provide medical aid to the poor and needy people. As per the data available, 68 per cent of the people are suffering from Non-Communicable Disease. A testing lab will also be a part of these HWC.”