The Gujarat government on Saturday announced that Health Minister Rishikesh Patel has given in-principle approval for the establishment of 24 new Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in various districts across the state.
These facilities will be essential to strengthening and improving the state’s rural healthcare system’s accessibility and availability for everyone, according to the health minister.
Additionally, he clarified that the Government of India’s rural population standards are used to authorise primary health centres in the state. According to these norms, one primary health centre can exist for every 20,000 people in tribal regions and for every 30,000 people in general rural areas.
At present, 1,499 primary health centres in the state are authorised and functioning in accordance with the 2011 rural population standards.
Instead of only following the predetermined population standards, the authorisation of these 24 new centres was based on geospatial analysis that took into account geographic circumstances and the distance between existing centres. This guarantees the delivery of medical treatment in isolated and unreachable locations.
Notably, each primary health centre has a senior clerk, junior pharmacist, laboratory technician, medical officer and other staff members.
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