Government to upgrade health centres to wellness centres in villages

The main purpose of the scheme is to ensure that expectant mothers and new born children can avail better health care facilities at their door steps. If there is infrastructural revamp in heath centers and sub-centres, the number of incidents of transfer of patients to city's medical colleges will go down. It often becomes difficult for the patients living in remote areas to reach district or sub-divisional hospitals due to the poor connectivity.

The district health officials will monitor if the government heath schemes are properly implemented in these Health Wellness Centers.

According to a senior health department official, community health officers will be engaged in these centres whose primary objective is to ensure that the patients from far flung areas can avail the benefits of various government schemes. The community health officers will mostly be recruited among the nurses who are already in government services. There will be a special training course for six months for these health officers. They will be allowed to prescribe certain drugs after they undergo training.

Apart from examining the patients, administering injections or vaccination on the patients, these community health officers will also make people aware about various health schemes introduced by the state government and how to avail them.

It may be mentioned here that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is also the health minister of the state stressed enormous emphasis on the development of infrastructure in the rural areas. Her efforts to reduce the mortality rate of infants and their mother have already translated into action.