Hyderabad: GHMC Commissioner Dr B. Janardhan Reddy along with Addl Commissioners Sikta Patnaik and Bhaskara Chary held a review meeting on Basthi Dawakhanas status at GHMC Head Office here today.
The Commissioner instructed the officials to coordinate among the AMOHs, State program health officers and district program officers in identifying the places for providing Basthi Dawakhana in their respective areas and also to submit alternative proposals. Apart from selecting Community Halls where no halls were available, they should give options on private buildings so that the facilities can be provided. They were also instructed to see if there was any issue on the community halls or private buildings along with the objections if any by July 25.
In the first phase, 30 Basthi Dawakhanas are proposed, in the second phase 26 and in third phase 27 totaling 83 out of which 17 Basthi Dawakhanas were functioning. AMOHs of GHMC, Executive Engineers, Program Health Officers and other senior officials attended the meeting.
The Basthi Dawakhana will be located inside slums to meet health care needs of the urban population with the focus on urban poor, by making available to them essential primary health care services and reducing their out of pocket expenses for treatment and the proposed slums will not be covered by any existing or proposed UPHCs. Depending on the spatial distribution of the population, the Basthi Dawakhana will cater to approximately from 5,000 to 10,000 people. Basthi Dawakhanas will provide basic clinical outpatient services and will also build the referral linkage between the UPHCs and other major health facilities.
The Basthi Dawakhanas aim to provide a defined package of services as close to home as possible for vulnerable population and will act as the first point of contract between the community and the health system and will be attached to the nearest UPHC. (NSS)
