Punjab government mulls setting up AACs in sub-divisional, district hospitals
Patiala health department has already proposed the name of Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital to build an AAC on its premises. Currently, the daily OPD patient count at Mata Kaushalya is more than 1,400.
The Punjab government has decided to set up Aam Aadmi Clinics (ACCs) on the premises of the secondary health centres including sub-divisional and district hospitals across the state.
According to orders by the Punjab health department, issued last week, the civil surgeons in the districts have been asked to identify and propose the potential sub-divisional and district health facilities where AACs could be set up with a pre-condition that there should be no such facility within 200-300m of the hospitals.
A senior health officer, privy to the development, said the rationale behind this is to decrease specialists’ patient load.
“Many districts have already proposed names of hospitals. We will now move the file for further process to build AACs,” the officer said, pleading anonymity.
Patiala health department has already proposed the name of Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital to build an AAC on its premises. Currently, the daily OPD patient count at Mata Kaushalya is more than 1,400.
The sources familiar with the process said that the current step has been taken so that the AAP government can display the hoardings and signages of its flagship programme.
Recently, the Punjab government has started renaming the Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) as Ayushman Arogya Kendras (AAK), as part of its compromise with the Centre after funds for these facilities were withheld since 2023 over branding issues.
Consequent to this, around 628, out of the total 881 AACs, were renamed, and the picture of chief minister Bhagwant Mann was removed from these facilities.
Many experts have already slammed the move saying that AACs are a part of primary health set-up aimed at providing basic health services to the scattered population at their doorsteps.
“AACs are meant to provide basic health care such as treatment of common illnesses, immunisation, maternal care, child health and health education. An AAC has one medical officer (General), a pharmacist and a receptionist. On the other hand, secondary health centres are bigger facilities having specialists like surgeons, physicians, and gynaecologists. As per the existing set-up, sub-divisional and district hospitals have 24x7 emergency and other facilities. In fact, these are the referrals for primary health centres,” a health expert said, pleading anonymity.
Dr Akhil Sarin, president of the Punjab Civil Services Medical Association, said, “Although, the AACs have significantly augmented the primary health services at the PHC levels, in the form of enhanced lab testing, drugs availability, and upgraded infrastructure. But this health model is primarily and optimally suited for better primary health care services only, and not secondary care.”
