Criteria for Setting up Health Centres
The population norms laid down for setting up of public health infrastructure in rural areas under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) are as follows:
|
Public Health Facility |
Population Norms |
|
|
Plain Area |
Hilly/Tribal/Difficult Area |
|
|
Sub-Centre |
5,000 |
3,000 |
|
Primary Health Centre |
30,000 |
20,000 |
|
Community Health Centre |
1,20,000 |
80,000 |
In addition, a norm of ‘Time to care’ has been recently adopted under which a Sub Centre can be set up within 30 minutes by walk from habitations in selected districts of hilly states and desert areas.
As regards District Hospitals, there is no well defined criterion. However, each district could have at least one District level Hospital.
Although Public Health is a State subject, under NRHM financial support is provided to States/UT governments to strengthen their health care system including establishment/up-gradation/renovation of health infrastructure as per the requirements posed by State/UT governments in their Programme Implementation Plans.
This was stated by Sh Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare in a written reply to the Lok Sabha