Health Care Facilities at Primary Health Centres -An Analysis of Select PHCs in Telengana Region

In India, the Bhore Committee (1946) has conceived the concept of Primary Health Centre (PHC) as a basic health unit to provide health care to the people at the nearest location. The Committee proposed an integrated health care to the rural population with emphasis on preventive and curative health care. These centers functioned as peripheral health service institutions with little or no community involvement. Increasingly, these centers came under criticism, as they were not able to provide adequate health coverage, partly, because these PHCs were not adequately staffed, equipped and possessed basic amenities. In this context, the present study is aimed at understanding the functioning of PHCs in Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh. More, specifically, the objectives of the study were to know the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) for Primary Health Centres, assess the availability the services and understand the awareness of beneficiaries on availability of health care services at select PHCs in Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh. The study revealed that in spite of prescribing IPHS for PHCs in India for a quite long period, all services stipulated by IPHS are not offered at the select PHCs in Telengena region indicating lot of variations and deficiencies in the availability of the services. Further, the beneficiaries are not fully aware of the services provided by the select PHCs in three districts of Telengana in spite of existence of citizen charter. In view of the above facts, the Government has to take measures to provide services in PHCs as per IPHS and educate the target population to enable them to utilize the services provided by the PHCs in select districts of Telengana-Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar.