Cabinet approves health plan for urban poor

The cabinet Wednesday approved a scheme to provide healthcare to the urban poor under the over-arching National Health Mission (NHM), official sources said.

According to officials, under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM),teh government plans to set up various facilities at an outlay of Rs.22,507 crore for five years.

These include one urban primary health centre for every 50,000-60,000 people, one urban community health centre for five to six areas in big cities, one auxiliary nursing midwives' centre for a population of 10,000, and one Accredited Social Health Activist ASHA (community link worker) for 200 to 500 households.

Of the total outlay, the central government's share will be Rs.16,955 crore.

Centre-state funding share for the scheme will be on 75:25 ratio except for northeastern states and other special category states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. For these which the funding pattern will be 90:10.

The scheme will be implemented in 779 cities and towns that have a population of over 50,000. It will cover about 7.75 crore people, said officials.

It will help reduce the infant mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio and will provide universal access to reproductive healthcare and convergence of all health-related interventions.