Every ward of the corporation will soon have its own outdoor clinic with a doctor on call in the mornings and evenings every day of the week. The service will be free.
These clinics are being called wellness centres and will be set up in accordance with the state health department’s recent directive to all urban local bodies to make such arrangements.
Although primary health centres are run by a number of municipal corporations as well as municipalities, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the idea is to provide the first step in civic healthcare at the ward level, said a BMC health department official.
“We are aware that there are primary health centres as well as hospitals that are run at the urban local body level even but these new wellness centres will be set up at every ward to ensure that people can get primary treatment closer to where they live,” the official said.
Banibrata Banerjee, the mayoral council member in charge of the BMC’s health department, said they had received the directive and had already alerted ward councillors to find spaces where such clinics can be set up.
According to Banerjee, they are looking to set up these clinics near ward offices or inside them in case they have adequate space. “In Salt Lake, it will be easier for us to set up these centres as many ward offices have adequate space where a dedicated room can be converted into a clinic. We have already asked the councillors to send us a list of available spaces in their wards,” said Banerjee.
He said the cost of setting up the clinics will be borne by the state government while the civic body will recruit doctors.
At present there is a single resident medical officer at the corporation but he is involved in administration and does not see patients.
“We will be taking in doctors on a contractual basis. The clinics will run in the mornings and evenings. We will decide on the number of hours that we will keep them open for patients,” said Banerjee.
Another health department official said that these centres would also help them keep a tab on any Covid-19 infection trend at the ward level.
In the area under BMC, EE and AH Blocks in Salt Lake and places off VIP Road, including Baguiati and Arjunpur, are pink zones, with 10 to 20 new Covid cases over seven days.
In Rajarhat, large parts of Narayanpur, from where 11 Covid cases were reported in the past week, are in the pink category.