The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has set up 22 urban health and wellness centres in the city in addition to the existing primary health centres to create more facilities for people to receive treatment.
The health and wellness centres provide various health services that were so far available only at primary health centres. Each health and wellness centre has a doctor, a nurse and a pharmacist.
People from low-economic backgrounds who work as daily wage earners and do not want to waste a day’s earnings by visiting a government hospital far from their homes form a large group of patients visiting the health clinics of the civic body.
Doctors and officials at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the objective behind setting up the health and wellness centres, also colloquially called satellite centres, was to have more centres from where people can avail services.
Vaccination of children is one of the many objectives that can be better achieved by setting up more such health and wellness centres, said KMC sources.
Long queues of people outside the primary health centres — there is one primary health centre in each of the 144 wards of Calcutta — to avail services is a common sight. The satellite centres could reduce the queues and make it easier for people to receive the services.
The scarcity of land within Calcutta has emerged as a stumbling block in setting up more such centres.
“We received a grant under the 15th finance commission to build over 50 health and wellness centres in the city. So far we have been able to build 22 such centres,” said a
KMC official.
“We would have liked to set up more health and wellness centres by now, but we are not being able to locate for setting up new centres,” said one official.
“If there are two health centres with doctors and medicines, people will choose the ones nearer to their home. This will naturally reduce the load on one centre. The waiting time for patients will also reduce and they will feel empowered to visit the health centre as and when they need,” said a KMC official.
The plan is also to build health and wellness centres in far-flung areas of the wards, which is quite some distance from the existing primary health centres. People from far-off neighbourhoods often have trouble reaching the primary health centre. A health and wellness centre closer home would help them,” said the KMC official.
A health and wellness centre was inaugurated at Ward 106, in Jadavpur’s Purbachal Main Road, on February 5. It was the 22nd such centre in the city, said a KMC official. Mayor Firhad Hakim and deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, who also heads KMC’s health department, were present at the inauguration.
Arijit Das Thakur, the councillor of Ward 106, said the centre was in a prominent location compared to the older primary health centre in the ward.
“Though this has been built as a satellite centre, we have plans to bring the primary health centre to this building. The primary health centre now functions from a building that is also the Ramlalbazar market. People often fail to spot the primary health centre. This building is more strategically located and will be easier to spot,” said Das Thakur.
A doctor of the KMC said the satellite centres would also benefit people coming to KMC’s clinics for treatment or vaccination.
“The number of children receiving vaccines from our centres is ever increasing. Post-Covid we have seen a significant rise in the number of children taking vaccines from our centres. If each ward
has one more centre for vaccination, then the waiting time will come down,” said the
doctor.