Upgrade for health centres

TT, 27 November 2019, Darjeeling, Siliguri: The Bengal government has decided to improve infrastructure at health establishments in Darjeeling district to ensure better services for patients.

According officials in the district health department, 29 health sub-centres, five in the hills and 24 in the plains will be upgraded to Suswasthya Kendras. Besides, the department will kick off the work to improve primary health centres. Suswasthya Kendras

"We decided to upgrade and improve all sub-centres in the district. Initially, we will upgrade 20 such centres. In each such centre, a Community Health Officer (CHO) would be posted to ensure better treatment," said Pralay Acharya, the chief medical officer of health, Darjeeling.

He said the sub-centres were the most peripheral and first contact point between the primary healthcare system and the local population.

"For the women staff at the sub-centres, we also initiated a six-month-long training on auxiliary nursing midwifery and general nursing & midwifery. They would be better experienced to handle delivery cases then. All of them are getting training on communicable and non-communicable diseases to handle patients and in case there are reports of multiple cases communicable diseases," said Acharya.

Once the training is over, they will be eligible to apply for the posts of CHOs. "After the training, they will be employed at the sub-centres as CHOs. Their earnings will increase and they will also have the option to select the subcentre near their homes," an official said..