65 new health centres for Bengaluru civic body wards

As many as 65 new primary health centres (PHCs) will be started in the city civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), wards without such health facilities, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister said on Monday.

"Sixty five new PHCs will be started soon. Of the 198 wards in BBMP, 65 wards have no PHCs," said C. N. Ashwathnarayan after a BBMP review meeting.

He directed the civic body officials to work towards establishing the health facilities.

"If there is no ready building with the BBMP, start PHCs by renting private buildings," he said.

Considering that several programmes are being run by the central and state governments, Ashwathnarayan directed the officials to collect data on health schemes to bring it onto a single platform.

To create such a platform, a team of techies lead by Prasanth Prakash has come forward to offer the required technology.

Ashwathnarayan expects the platform to be ready in a month's time.

"After collating patient information from all BBMP hospitals, a unified dash board will be created. This will provide complete data of patients at the click of a mouse button and enables to decide the kind of treatment required to be given," he said.

Linking data from private hospitals as well, Ashwathnarayan said immediate action can be taken in the event of an epidemic or a pandemic breakout.

Likewise, to enable the poor to access quality health, he said five centralized health centres will be set up where online treatment through e-clinics can be offered.