Leveraging Existing Platforms to Reach the Unreached

This initiative involves upgrading 150,000 sub-centers to Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs), ensuring that no one is left behind in accessing quality healthcare. The HWCs provide an expanded package of services, including components of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), ophthalmic, ear, nose and throat, oral health, palliative, and geriatric care. In Jharkhand, the state where Sameena Khatoon works, the USAID's flagship Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP), led by Jhpiego, is providing technical assistance for strengthening CPHC. Sameena, an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), has been working at the health sub-center at Radhanagar for ten years. She and her team of ASHAs have been educating, screening, and referring people for health ailments, despite the challenges posed by left-wing extremism in the area. The transformation of the health sub-center into a Health and Wellness Center (HWC) has increased Sameena's scope of work. She now provides an expanded package of services, including NCD screening, ophthalmic care, and geriatric care. Sameena utilizes the existing Village Health Nutrition Day (VHND) platform to screen people for NCDs, capitalizing on the opportunity to reach out to thousands of people, including those living at a distance from the HWC. Within three months, a total of 407 people in the catchment area of HWC Radhanagar have been screened for NCDs. Sameena conducts investigations for NCD screening using the glucometer and blood pressure apparatus, which are part of her ANM kit. If any person is diagnosed with a NCD, she refers them to the next referral point, which is the Primary Health Center at the town 'Char' where a doctor diagnoses the patient and prescribes the required medication. Sameena's efforts have helped her and the team at HWC Radhanagar to reach out to the far-off villages and to a population that is otherwise reluctant to visit a health facility despite symptoms of ill health. Sameena believes that she is transforming lives by providing quality healthcare to the people in her community. Her work has increased the footfalls at the health facility, and she has become a trusted figure in the community, with people visiting her for health services.