Aarogya Samiksha Kendra: A single-window solution for healthcare management
The Gujarat government is set to inaugurate, in the next few days, a comprehensive health control room — Aarogya Samiksha Kendra — in Gandhinagar that will not only act as a review centre for all state and national health programmes but will also be the hub for health metrics analysis and command centre, especially in times of crisis or disasters. It will also act as a call centre facility for those seeking help from the 104 helpline as well as information on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
The review centre will be the long sought umbrella organisation that can issue commands down to the primary health care (PHC) level to better integrate health and medical services across the state, said a statement from the Health Department.
Review of health metrics
The Aarogya Samiksha Kendra will offer a platform for integration of the entire Health Department's data involving multiple metrics, including medical services, vaccination, maternal and child health, public health statistics, among others on its dashboard. This will allow senior health officials to take stock, identify gaps and implement corrective measures, and then convey them to the field health staff across one or all districts in the state.
The communication module with its video conferencing facilities and click-to-dial features will enable top officials to not only pass down policy decisions to field staff and district level officers, but also call on individual officials or groups of personnel from a particular area to review progress. An official, familiar with the matter, said that this will also enable peer learning, collective brainstorming of ideas, corrective tactics and better implementation of health strategies at the ground level.
Further, the kendra is also to be used for training the personnel of the Health Department. Teams from a single district or teams of one particular division from multiple districts can be called in and trained at the centre through audio-visual aids with the facilities set up at the kendra in Gandhinagar, according to the officials.
Non-emergency 104 helpline
The GVK-EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) non-emergency call centre, with the 104 toll-free number, was moved to the new facility from Kathwada (Ahmedabad) in mid May, said an official. Another official from GVK-EMRI who runs this helpline said that the move was facilitated without dropping a single call. The call centre currently has 100 call takers with the number of people likely to increase incrementally as the operations expand gradually, according to the official. The call takers include doctors, counselors, clinical psychologists and paramedics who advise people not only on their 'sick' symptoms, but also make sure that if the patient appears to be in an emergency situation, to switch the call to the emergency centre and dispatch an ambulance to their location.
Further, with an upsurge in Covid cases, the helpline also advises potential or actual Covid patients on home isolation, medication and, depending on their symptoms, ask them to visit a doctor.
Health officials also said that the department wanted the kendra to be ready before monsoon as rains give rise to a lot of medical issues ranging from the spread of vector-borne diseases to pneumonia and other health problems caused in areas of flooding. Flooding also tends to disrupt vaccination processes and access to health services in under-developed districts.
Monitoring of health scheme patients
The call takers of the 104 helpline have also been co-opted into monitoring the vulnerable patients, enrolled in critical healthcare programmes run by the state and the Centre, including the PM-JAY programme.
Pregnant women with sickle cell anemia, heart and kidney problems, weight less than 42 kg, low hemoglobin and high risk pregnancies who need to avail antenatal care and other treatment are given one-to-one calls and they are also given reminders in connection with their check-up dates.
Parents of children who are underweight, malnourished or are suffering from debilitating diseases and are in treatment under the School Health Programme are called and reminded of check up and medication refill dates. This also includes vaccination programmes.
High-risk TB patients undergoing treatment and patients who have experienced side effects of TB drugs during 15 days of treatment are called by the doctors.
These include patients who have completed two, three, four and six months of TB treatment.
Feedback and enquiries of patients undergoing treatment under PM-JAY and evaluation through the services of the helpline number has also started. Officials said that as the kendra achieves full operationality, more health services will be added to the profile.
Disaster response: Command and control
While the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) has already been operational for years now, the Health Department had wanted its own control room to be able to direct operations in times of natural disasters or cluster infections that need continuous and real-time monitoring at the state level.
With the facilities at the Aarogya Samiksha Kendra, senior health officials will be able to pass on instructions and receive updates from the ground, enabling them to make decisions in view of the changing situation on the field, according to the officials.
Giving an example, a source said, 'At the time of Cyclone Tauktae (in 2021), we first evacuated all the pregnant women. This was all done by the Health Department.'
Similarly, in cases of localised infections or disease clusters, health staff on the ground can be given operational guidance from this centre.
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Maya in Kerala, Serena Josephine M. in Chennai, Bindu Shajan Perappadan in Delhi, Afshan Yasmeen in Bengaluru, Shrabana Chatterjee in Kolkata and Siddharth Kumar Singh in Hyderabad.
