Patna (PTI): In a bid to inject fresh life into Bihar's rural medicare system, the state government has taken a major policy decision by upgrading the existing 533 primary health centres into community health centres equipped with all modern medical gadgets.

Bihar Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav told PTI on Thursday that the PHCs across the state would now be rechristened as CHCs and would be developed into full-fledged hospitals so that rural people could get specialised treatment at their doorsteps.

The PHCs would be converted into CHCs with 30-bed indoor ward. The work would be done in phases, Yadav said, adding that round-the-clock outdoor patient department would also run at these CHCs.

Four specialised services - Medicine, Gynaecology, Paediatric and Surgery - would be provided at the CHCs for which the state government has initiated the process to appoint the doctors.

"We have asked the Bihar Public Service Commission to initiate the recruitment process of 2,132 doctors specialising in these four disciplines," the Health minister said.

The CHCs located in all block headquarters would have an operation theatre and a blood bank. However, initially the CHCs would have to depend on district hospitals for supply of blood, he said.

The CHCs would provide special facilities to expecting women, Yadav said, adding that labour rooms at the CHCs would also be upgraded.

The doctors and health workers posted at CHCs would be given incentives for achieving 100 per cent immunisation of pregnant women and infants under the 'muskan-ek abhiyan' scheme, he said.