KMC to inaugurate health centre at Ward number 9 on June 19

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has set up a new urban health and wellness centre at ward number 9. It will be inaugurated by Mayor Firhad Hakim.

It is learnt that this satellite health centre has been set up at 2/2A Banamali Sarkar Street in ward 09 under Borough-1. The centre will be inaugurated by the mayor on June 19 in the presence of TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, MLA Shashi Panja, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, local councilor Mitali Saha, among others.

Recently, Hakim had highlighted that chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to him and applauded the efforts of the KMC. She has requested to explore the possibility of setting up such satellite centres in all 144 wards. “It is only in Kolkata, there are wards with a huge number of people, such as ward 66 where the population count is 92000 approximately. In ward 14, there are about 44,000 population while in my ward (ward 82) the population is about 40000. In ward 78, there are almost 48,000 people. One KMC ward is like an entire constituency,” Hakim said.

The Mayor added that KMC primary healthcare centres have now almost become tertiary care centres. “This was much needed since if everyone rushes to hospitals for minor illnesses that can be taken care of with basic medicines, then ones with serious illnesses such as heart issues will not get proper attention at hospitals. These satellite centres will also reduce congestion in hospitals. This is now the norm over the world where patients are first attended to by primary health care centres and then referred to hospitals if required. Thus, KMC is exploring the possibility of setting up such satellite centres in the majority of the wards.”

Commenting on the number of such satellite health centres, a KMC health department official said that the civic body will have about a total of 200 health centres at the community level in days to come. Soon, besides setting up the counseling clinics in each of the health centres, KMC can also go for focused discussion on health issues at the community level, said the official.