Spurred by the reasonable success of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the Union health ministry is now planning to launch a similar programme to improve the health conditions of the urban poor, especially in the outskirts of towns.

The National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) would address the urban poor specially those residing in slums of towns and cities with a population of one lakh and above. The cities were yet to be identified to launch the pilot project.

Once the details of the programme are worked out, the Ministry is hoping to get additional outlay for the same at least in the next budget and launch the same in the next financial year itself, sources in the Ministry said.

Most of the features of the NRHM would be adopted for the NUHM which would converge the ongoing programmes under the mission. The NRHM was launched in 2005 as a flagship programme of the Ministry with a view to bringing improvement in health system and the health status of people who live in rural areas of the country. Besides, channelising more funds through the three-tier civic bodies, the NHRM aimed at shifting the focus from a disease centric approach to a patient centric approach.

Apart from merging Department of Health & Family Welfare in the Centre and all States, NRHM has successfully moved towards a single State and District level Health Society for effective integration and convergence, the sources claimed. The involvement of civil society through PPP and in Rogi Kalyan Samitis has made the health system increasingly accountable. Reports from States like Bihar, Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan indicate that the number of outpatient cases in Primary health centres has gone up significantly. With regard to Maternity services, there has been tremendous improvement in Institutional delivery in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Haryana, Rajasthan and Assam over the last two years. Service delivery in several hospitals has gone up due to establishment of Rogi Kalyan Samitis.

Realizing the need for closer interaction by the community with the facility levels particularly in States having weak infrastructure indicators, the Mission introduced an Accredited Social Health Activist known as ASHA. More than 4.56 lakh ASHAs have been selected and are at various stages of training.