Need to focus on urban public health services: Jan Arogya Abhiyan

Pune: Ahead of the municipal corporation elections, Jan Arogya Abhiyan, a group campaigning for health care, has demanded improved health services in urban areas from political parties contesting in the upcoming elections.

In an open letter, the group feels that citizens should demand the same from the parties contesting these elections.

With the municipal corporations' elections due in most metros and cities in the state which include Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Solapur, Amravati, Kolhapur among others, Jan Arogya Abhiyan has demanded that political parties must place upgradation of health services and provision of free quality health care to all people in urban areas as their topmost agenda during upcoming elections.

"All political parties must declare their agenda for improving urban health care" stated the letter by health activists Dr Anand Phadke and Dr Abhay Shukla from Jan Arogya Abhiyan. With the recent experience of near-collapse of urban healthcare systems during the peaks of first and second waves during the covid pandemic, the group has said that these experiences should be learning lessons to make urban health a prime political issue in the state

With cities being the worst hit during the covid pandemic, the state too registered a high number of cases and about 70,000 covid deaths, almost half of the total deaths due to Covid, occurred in municipal corporation cities, ''states the letter of Jan Arogya Abhiyan. Maharashtra was 4 of the top 5 Indian cities where the highest number of Covid deaths have occurred in the country.

Analysis states that there should be a total of 1,165 primary health centres in various cities and towns in the state but currently there are only 538 primary health centres, of which there is a shortfall of 54% PHCs are lacking and it means that 627 additional PHCs must be set up promptly.

The group has pointed out that the budget allocation is miniscule for health and spending is negligible.

The total number of public hospital beds available in urban areas in the state is 39,048 which amounts to just 0.78 hospital beds per 1,000 population (as per norms, 2-3 hospital beds are required per 1000 population).

Private hospitals have proliferated to take advantage of this huge gap, leading to major public-private imbalance.

In the Public health department, 17,000 approved posts of doctors and health workers are currently vacant, and further 11,000 posts are vacant in government Medical Colleges and Medical education departments; these have been vacant for several years.

The demands include an annual expenditure on public health in urban areas and each municipal corporation should spend at least 20% of its total budget on public health. The remaining required funds should be provided by the state government.