Yogi Adityanath govt planning to set up over 700 urban wellness centres in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is planning to set up over 700 urban health and wellness centres (UHWCs) in the state. This will enable people in Uttar Pradesh to get medical consultancy near their homes. Yogesh Raghuvanshi, district health education officer, in Lucknow, said, "The process has begun. We have identified the places where UHWCs will be opened and we will issue advertisements to hire places in those areas."

As many as 108 urban health and wellness centres are to be opened in Lucknow in phases, an official statement said on Friday. At these centres, 14 diagnostic facilities will be provided to patients. Also, test for cervical cancer detection will be there once the medical staff is trained to conduct them.

The UHWCs will also be providing telemedicine facilities in which experts sitting at premier institutes will give consultancy for complicated medical cases. "If the experts advise a test not conducted by UHWCs, the sample collection facility for the particular test will be provided by UHWCs," said the order issued to the chief medical officers across the state.

According to health department officials, the selection of places for setting up UHWCs had been done on the basis of vulnerability assessment and mapping of the urban areas, slums/vulnerable areas and areas with no primary healthcare facility.

Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, of the Association of International Doctors, said, "UHWCs are being opened in areas with no primary health facility. Hence, the accessibility to medical services of people in these areas will increase and they will not have to travel to district hospitals for basic medical advice and diagnosis, thereby reducing the load on bigger hospitals."

The UHWCs will have an outpatient department (OPD) room, another room for vaccination, a waiting and registration area, one wellness room and a separate daycare room. Each room size has been defined. For example, the OPD will be a 100-square feet room and waiting room and registration 210 square feet. The UHWCs are being opened in districts with over 50,000 urban population.