Bhubaneswar, March 2: Primary and community health centres across the state, and in the city, are in for major revamp.

Following consultation with the health and family welfare department, the National Health Mission (NHM) has decided to rope in NGOs to construct and maintain these centres across the city.

The move aims to implement the ambitious National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) that was launched in the state in May 2013. Though three years have passed since the launch of the scheme, its services and facilities are yet to reach the citizens.

It goes beyond saying that the state-run small hospitals and health care centres require high-quality intervention. The shocking state of affairs of such health care centres was exposed when The Telegraph visited two such facilities in the city today.

When this correspondent visited the partially upgraded Unit IV Government Hospital and Unit III urban primary health centre at 11am, there were no doctors or pharmacists to attend to the patients, who had turned up there for treatment. It did not require much talking to understand the agony of the patients, who said that they had become used to long hours of waiting.

The scene at Unit III primary health centre was even more shocking. Though no doctor was present at the centre, the patients and their kin revealed what they had to go through everyday to get treated at the facility.

Talking to The Telegraph, a patient said that the lone doctor attached to the centre rarely showed up. He said that it was the pharmacist who took care of the patients.

"I have been living at Unit III for the past two years and have rarely seen this dispensary open on time. I can also count on my fingers the number of days that I saw the hospital staff members. It is a rare occasion to find the dispensary open and even if it does, finding a doctor is trying your luck too hard. I have even seen pharmacists at the centre doubling up as doctors. They hear from the patients about their ailment and give medicines to them. It is horrifying," said Akash Bhoi, a medical aspirant.

This is what the new move seeks to change.

As part of the scheme, the administration has decided to upgrade seven small hospitals into community health centres. It also plans to construct 41 new primary health centres and upgrade 46 existing dispensaries into similar facilities. One of these primary health centres will come up on the outskirts of the city.

"In order to implement the ambitious urban health mission scheme in the state, we have decided to invite non-governmental organisations for the construction of all the 41 primary health centres across the state, including one in Bhubaneswar. We will invite tender and finalise the agencies that will be responsible for construction, recruitment and maintenance of the health centres," said a senior NHM official.

In Bhubaneswar, the administration has decided to construct one primary health centre in Patia and upgrade 10 other existing dispensaries. Two other health centres - Unit IV Government Hospital and Municipal Hospital in Old Town - would be upgraded into community health centres in accordance to the Indian Public Health Standards.

According to sources, the NGOs have been invited following failure of the NHM and health and family welfare department officials to identify sites for construction of new health centres.

It is also said that the health providers had also failed to upgrade the existing dispensaries in the city to the standards prescribed in the NUHM guidelines.

Moreover, the officials have failed to track the performances of the health centres and these shortcomings exposed the citizens to great risk.

The government has also decided to tweak the timings of the health care centres. It has been decided that the primary health centres would function from noon to 8pm, instead of the present practice of 8am to noon.