Welcome to Arogyabank blog

AROGYABANK-
Greetings from YCMOU Nashik! Looking back on the sixth decades of independence, a gap still exists in primary level health care at the community level both in rural areas and poor urban localities. The situation is more acute in tribal and hilly areas. The NRHM is yet to provide a comprehensive answer through the public sector, though in principle it provides flexibility. On the other hand the private sector is clustered in town and weekly bazaar towns. Rural tribal people also seek care from untrained doctors and waste their hard earned resources on many irrational practices. The answer is to establish the ASHA-Arogyamitra-like programme to provide reasonable primary care on some scale. For this we need creative inputs, innovation, integration and sharing of responsibility to forge a THIRD sector (PPP) in health.
The YCMOU Arogyamitra programme (akin to ASHA in the NRHM) has now 50+ study centers (mainly NGOs) in the state and over 600 students have already passed in 2007. In 2008 the new enrollment may be about 1500-2000 including the ASHA programme of the Maharashtra Human Development Mission. Arogyamitra, now at level1 (ASHA) can be enhanced to level 2 with more information and capabilities.
However, training alone is not enough. There are many NGOs already have health worker Programmes. In fact the YCMOU study centers have a rich and diverse experience in various areas and projects from tribal blocks to urban slums. In some areas, the NRHM can be helpful. We need to share these experiences and possibilities on a common platform. Finally we need to have actual some health facility to help at village-community level.
In this context we are proposing an AROGYABANK at each community location. We suggest a true PPPPP or P5 (public-private-people-Panchayat partnership). This will have four deliverables: a) Primary care b) Info-bank in print and e-format c) Preventive services d) Linkages and follow-up. For this we need to have technical, academic, logistical, administrative, and political inputs. The responsibility needs to be shared with PRI, SHGs, Public Health system, Sponsor-donors and community. Above all, the Arogyabank should be visible and sustainable. Hence we are also inviting other experts from administration, structure and design, network management, legislator etc. The idea is to build on the various suggestions and synthesize a new working model that people should find attractive and reliable. We need to remind ourselves of the primary health care principles of—essential, accessible, acceptable, affordable, participatory, and comprehensive. We will discuss here the design, strategies, feasibility, pros-cons, value additions and finally how to go about making this idea possible.