Urban Primary Health Centre Map Guides Appropriate Resource Allocation in Bhagalpur in Bihar State, India

The idea behind developing this catchment area map is to assist UPHC staff, especially the medical officer-in-charge (MOIC), Auxiliary Nurses and Midwives (ANMs) and ASHAs, to identify their catchment area and the location of all nearby facilities.

Bihar state government and TCI India had first engaged in July 2022. TCI India’s proposed solution was to develop a "UPHC Catchment Map," to clearly demarcate the facility catchment area, district hospitals, medical colleges, and a ward-by-ward view of the population, wards, and members of women's health group, referred as Mahila Arogya Samiti (MAS).

Mani Bhushan, the District Program Manager (DPM), welcomed the idea and sought TCI's technical coaching in developing the same for one of the facilities. Thus, facility maps were prepared and displayed in the outpatient department (OPD) area. A copy of the same map was shared with Bhushan, who was delighted to clearly see the boundaries of each facility and use it for plotting population-based resources and seeking more resources wherever it was required. At a scheduled National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) review meeting, he presented the map to Bhagalpur's Civil Surgeon (CS).

Bhushan also mentioned to the CS that these maps were developed with TCI's technical coaching along and inputs from the District Immunization Officer, District Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Urban Consultant and MOICs. The CS appreciated the idea of the "UPHC Map" for better planning and decision-making. He asked the DPM to work with TCI and develop similar maps for all of Bhagalpur's facilities. The facilities then reached out to TCI to request coaching so they could also develop these maps.

The MOIC started noticing benefits from the mapping, as he observed that ASHAs were utilizing this map for micro-planning activities such as fixed-day static services, outreach camps, community mobilization and immunization. TCI's city implementation leads also shared these learnings and success stories with the CS and district officials for their cities.

As a result, all 50 UPHCs in Bihar's seven TCI-supported intervention cities developed their UPHC maps and proudly displayed them on the walls of their OPD.

The TCI India team presented a solution to optimally utilize existing resources based on previous learnings from the high-impact intervention – Mapping and Listing of Urban Slums – conducted in intervention cities of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.