One-year certificate course on Primary Health Care Management (CPHM)
India, as one of the fastest-growing economies, faces significant public health challenges that require effective leadership and enhanced capacity among healthcare professionals. Traditionally, the country's public healthcare system has focused on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, along with the prevention and control of communicable diseases. However, in recent years, the disease burden has shifted towards non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, which now account for the majority of morbidity and mortality.
Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub-Health Centres (SHCs) often lack the capacity to provide a comprehensive range of healthcare services, resulting in a heavy reliance on district hospitals for routine healthcare needs. This situation highlights the urgent need for a strengthened primary healthcare system capable of addressing the full spectrum of health needs at the community level. To address these gaps, the Government of India launched the Ayushman Bharat Programme, under which 1.5 lakh Sub-Health Centres and Primary Health Centres are being upgraded into Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs). These AAMs are designed to provide an expanded range of services, including preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care, thereby ensuring continuity of care while reducing out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare.
A critical component of the AAM initiative is the introduction of Community Health Officers (CHOs), a new cadre of non-physician healthcare providers. CHOs are responsible for delivering a broad range of essential health services as part of Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC). However, the current training provided to CHOs in India, is insufficient to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to effectively deliver the expanded range of services.
These gaps in the existing training programme underscore the need for a more comprehensive, competency-based, and practice-oriented training programme for CHOs. The proposed programme aims to strengthen their competencies in delivering the expanded range of services, enabling them to effectively address both existing and emerging public health challenges at the community level. By enhancing their knowledge and skills, the programme is expected to reduce the burden on secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities, improve the utilisation of government health services, and contribute towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the goals of the National Health Policy, 2017.
To address these training gaps, a comprehensive One-year training programme has been developed for Community Health Officers. The programme covers all 12 Expanded Range of Services (ERS) under Comprehensive Primary Health Care, along with three cross-cutting modules on National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), and Team Building. The programme aims to strengthen the competencies of the CHO cadre and transform primary healthcare delivery in India by making it more effective, efficient, equitable, and responsive to the evolving health needs of the population. Currently, the program is being piloted in the State of Odisha with support from the National Health Mission.