Own buildings will be built for all Janakeeya Arogya Kendras in Keralam: Minister

Health Minister K. Muraleedharan inaugurates construction of 16 Janakeeya Arogya Kendras and one urban health centre. Steps are being taken to ensure that all Janakeeya Arogya Kendras (JAKs) in Keralam have their own buildings, Health Minister K. Muraleedharan has said.He was inaugurating the construction of 16 JAKs and one urban health centre in the district at Peringamala family health centre in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday (October 7, 2026). This is a project which has been included in the 100-day action plan of the Keralam government.The government has decided to make available 100 essential drugs free of cost through the JAKs. Also, hospitals have been directed to make local purchases in case any drug falls short.JAKs are grassroots-level institutions which are the closest to the people in the public health system. At present, there are 5,416 JAKs in the State, with one JAK for every 5,000 population and each are served by one Juniour Public Health Nurse, Junior Health Inspector and Mid-level Service Provider, who is a trained BSc Nursing graduate. Janakeeya Arogya Samitis have been formed at every JAK to plan, supervise and review health-related activities with people’s participation.Lifestyle diseases or NCD (non-communicable diseases) clinics, well woman clinics, priority home visits and patient support group services are being made available to the public through these centres.The centres also run a ‘Fixed Day Fixed Clinic’ system that ensures specific services on each day of the week, and provide home-based screening, home-centred care, referral to higher-level hospitals where required, and follow-up care.The fixed day-clinics and home-based screening ensure that services are made available at the doorstep of people.‘Hridayaragam’ campaign, launched for the early detection and prevention of diseases, will be extended to the Vamanapuram constituency in its next phase, Mr. Muraleedharan said.He said that the government’s aim is to strengthen the public health system further and make quality treatment and care available to the people.New postsSteps are under way to create approximately 1,800 new posts of doctors, and about 500 posts of nurses and pharmacists, in the State’s public health system. Steps are also on to improve the facilities at government medical college hospitals so that more beds are available to peopleSudheer Shah, Palode MLA, Peringamala panchayat president P.N. Arunkumar, Vamanapuram block panchayat president Raghunathan Nair, DMO Bindu Mohan, and Health department staff, among others, were present. Published - October 07, 2026 08:07 pm IST