Five Coimbatore Corporation urban primary health centres (UPHCs) will soon see an upgrade at ₹ 7.50 crore
The centres are the SLM Home on Krishnasamy Road, on Bharathi Park Road and in Selvapuram, Peelamedu and Singanallur. The civic body will invest around ₹ 1.50 crore on each of the five centres with the funds that the Central Government is giving under the National Urban Health Mission., says sources familiar with the development.
The upgrade comes after the Corporation established three new UPHCs under the very government scheme at ₹ 42 lakh each.
The five UPHCs, after the upgrade, will act as the zonal referral hospitals in each of the five zones of the Corporation.
The objective behind the upgrade is to bring on a par the urban health service with the rural health service, the sources say.
In villages, the health set up is in such a way that there are health sub centres, primary health centres, block primary health centres, taluk hospitals, government hospitals and then the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), the sources point out.
The sub centres and primary health centres provide primary healthcare, the block health centres and taluk hospitals provide the secondary care and the CMCH the tertiary care. In the urban set up, though, after the urban health centres that provide primary healthcare, the only other government hospital is the CMCH that provides tertiary care, leaving no establishment that provides secondary healthcare.
It is to bridge the gap that the Corporation is upgrading the five UPHCs with the government funds, the sources explain. One of the impacts of providing tertiary care at the zonal level will be that the burden on patients going to the CMCH will come down as they can get medical services at the zonal health centres, which will be open round the clock, have operation theatres to perform caesarian delivery and minor procedures, blood bank, scan and a few other facilities.
And, to offer such service, the Corporation will deploy more doctors, staff nurses and other allied staff, the sources add.
Senior officials say the Corporation will soon float tender to start the construction at the five UPHCs.
