188 community health centres to become first referral units

Ranchi: The Jharkhand govt is planning to upgrade 188 community health centres (CHCs) to first referral units (FRUs) in order to strengthen healthcare facilities and emergency services at the block level. The state has a total of 194 CHCs.

In the first phase, 20 CHCs will be developed as FRUs. Specialist doctors and healthcare staff would be deputed at the CHCs, whose infrastructure would be upgraded.

“Unlike CHCs, FRUs provide 24x7 emergency medical services. Once operational, these centres will offer facilities for handling complicated deliveries and caesarean sections at the block level itself. Patients will no longer need to be referred directly to district hospitals and medical colleges for neonatal care and emergency treatment. These centres will also ensure minimum facilities for blood storage and blood transfusion,” Dr RK Singh, the NHM’s state nodal officer of media cell Jharkhand, said.

“The govt is planning to upgrade all its 24 sadar hospitals to medical colleges soon. Due to the lack of upgraded healthcare centres at block levels, doctors have to refer many emergency cases to sadar hospitals. Now the health department is planning to ensure availability of the facilities at block level hospitals,” he added.

NHM (Jharkhand chapter) director Shashi Prakash Jha directed officials to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis to identify shortcomings in the CHCs.

Dr Singh, however, said, “No timeline has been finalised so far to complete the upgradation process”.

Meanwhile, the govt has begun groundwork to upgrade Khunti, Jamtara, Giridih, and Dhanbad sadar hospitals into medical colleges under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model in an effort to expand access to quality medical education and advanced treatment facilities in underserved regions.

With the upgradation, the number of medical colleges in the state will increase to nine from five. The Jharkhand Medical and Health Infrastructure Development and Procurement Corporation Ltd (JMHIDPCL) in May had issued tender notices, inviting private players to partner in the project.