IPSI launched its inaugural issue of Primary Healthcare Matters series on World Health Day 2024. Through this series we aim to inform on innovations and best practices in primary health care in India.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s ‘Ayushman Bharat’ program aims to strengthen Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) through Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs, now known as Ayushman Arogya Mandir or AAM). The AB-HWC program seeks to transition from a selective approach to a comprehensive model of delivering primary healthcare services.
Evidence informed decision-making using routine health information systems has been an ongoing challenge due to various factors. In the current context of Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs), information is available across multiple, disease- or program-specific data portals; however, there is no integrated system that can enable facility and block/district managers to make decisions on comprehensive health of the population.
Series #6: Community action for better health: The potential of Village Health Councils in Meghalaya
The state of Meghalaya, in north-eastern India, has been at the forefront of promoting community involvement through Village Health Councils (VHCs). VHCs are elected bodies comprising key village representatives. VHC are mandated to organise efforts around improving nutrition and health in their communities, and thereby bridge the gap between the community and primary health care system.
Team-based models of delivering primary health care services are widely recognized as necessary for providing people with comprehensive and continuous health care. While health policy guidelines in India identify roles and responsibilities of each team member at Sub-Health Centers (now known as Ayushman Arogya Mandir; previously Health and Wellness Centers), there is a need to obtain a grounded understanding of team functions and corresponding team competencies (i.e. key knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes) that teams should possess to deliver health services effectively.
Digital health information systems are essential for collecting information on population health. However, data collection challenges including technological barriers and redundant data entry processes increase the workload for data collection. In West Garo Hills in the state of Meghalaya, health workers put significant time and effort into data collection, fragmented data management systems and inefficient processes mean that the data collected is not effectively used to improve service delivery.
Previous Issue
Krishna D. Rao
Director IPSI, and Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Pandemics are highly inequitable. They impose a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality on countries and people at the lower end of the income distribution. Moreover, as in the case of COVID-19, control efforts through social distancing and population lockdowns have brought additional deprivations on vulnerable populations. In low- and middle- income countries (LMIC) and elsewhere, the slowdown in economic activity has resulted in rapidly rising unemployment, particularly in the informal sector, where the majority of workers are employed and without adequate social safety nets. The effects of COVID-19 and population lockdowns will have short and long term effects on health, human capital, and income of vulnerable populations. It is now increasingly clear that economically vulnerable groups are being forced to sacrifice disproportionately more for the better health of society. To mitigate the deprivation due to COVID-19 it is necessary for government safety net programs to provide long term support focused on specific vulnerable populations.
Dr. Baridalyne Nongkynrih, Dr. Mohan Bairwa
Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Globally, NCDs are responsible for about 70% of all deaths, resulting in nearly 15 million “premature” deaths globally (i.e., deaths between the ages of 30 and 69 years). The majority of these deaths at 85% occur in in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). NCDs (cancer, CVD, CRD, diabetes and mental health – can result in a cumulative output loss of US$ 47 trillion over the period 2011-2030 i.e. nearly 75% of the global GDP in 2010. CVDs and mental health diseases are the two main contributors to the global economic burden of NCDs. In India and other South-East Asian countries, NCDs affect a relatively younger population as compared to the western countries.
Harsha Joshi
Program Officer, India Primary Health Care Support Initiative (IPSI)
The year 2020 brought global attention to public health and health systems. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world are prioritizing the health sector and its resource requirements. In India, recent developments such as the 15th Finance Commission (FC) report, and the Union Budget 2021-22 indicate increased government attention to the health sector. Importantly, there is a renewed focus primary health care reforms and increased financing for primary health care.