Telangana: Arogya Mahila scheme a boon

Ensured women, especially from economically weaker sections, are able to access their unmet healthcare needs

Hyderabad: The comprehensive women healthcare initiative under the unique Arogya Mahila scheme has ensured women, especially from economically weaker sections, were able to access their unmet healthcare needs like early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers, menstrual health, management of menopause related health issues, urinary tract infections (UTIs) and other similar ailments in government hospitals.

While all of the above healthcare services were already available at government hospitals, this is the first time that a concerted effort through Arogya Mahila scheme was taken-up to ensure women are able to access these facilities on a single day and do not have to make multiple visits to the government hospitals.

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Unless it is a medical emergency, a majority of working women from economically weaker sections, tend to postpone their visit to a doctor. Public health officials familiar with Arogya Mahila initiative, however, have pointed out that once-in-a-week special health camps have enabled women to plan their visits to hospitals.

As a result, since March, close to 2.30 lakh women in Telangana have availed an array of diagnostic tests for women-specific ailments and, wherever it was necessary, have undergone treatment for their medical conditions.

Arogya Mahila clinics:

To ensure maximum number of women were able to avail health care services at 272 Arogya Mahila (AM) health camps being organised every Tuesday, the health authorities ensured that each clinic will have an OP of more than 50 women and samples collected for testing are 20 per cent of OP per clinic.

Almost all the AM clinics ensured that at least 10 women who walk-in, undergo tests to identify cervical cancer. The health authorities said that the process of collecting samples and updating the results in the AM portal was done within 24-hours.

Capacity building:

To efficiently implement a health scheme of that scale, the health department conducted a series of training and orientation programs for health care workers at every level in Government hospitals.

All the District Medical and Health Officers (DM&HOs) and Hospitals Superintendents of referral facilities were trained on implementation of the Arogya Mahila (AM) program. The identified district nodal officers long with facility level staff of AM clinics and staff from T-Diagnostics, women medical officers, staff nurses and gynecologists who will be manning the AM clinics were also specially trained.