new delhi a performance audit of health and wellness centres hwcs operating in the country has revealed that more than 178 crore people have availed treatment at these health facilities in the last five yearsalso 12202 crore cumulative screenings have been conducted for noncommunicable diseases this includes 4181 crore screenings for hypertension 3616 crore for diabetes 2475 crore for oral cancer 1144 crore for breast cancer and 783 crore for cervical cancer earlier only 6465 of the deaths in india were caused by communicable disease and the rest 3526 were caused by noncommunicable diseases this has reversed completely and now nearly 6566 of the deaths are being caused by noncommunicable diseases therefore a lot of focus is being given to screening people for noncommunicable diseases like hypertension diabetes breast cancer and cervical cancer among others that are leading causes of mortality a senior government officials saidin 2018 the centre had announced that 15 lakh health wellness centres hwcs would be created in the country by transforming existing sub health centres and primary health centres to deliver comprehensive primary health care and declared this as one of the two components of ayushman bharat subsequently mous memorandums of understanding were signed with all the states according to the latest available data there are a total of 1 59803 hwcs in the country uttar pradesh up has maximum 21668 hwcs that are currently operational followed by andhra pradesh 11853 west bengal 10357 and bihar 10278 many patients in rural districts had to travel 1520 kms to go and see a doctor and get medicines earlier but now due to the abhwcs in the vicinity they can just walk up to the clinic and consult senior doctors at the district hospitals through tele consultation and get medicines from the hwcs itselfteleconsultation services through esanjeevani platform are being leveraged at these abhwcs to provide specialist services closer to the community enabling the delivery of uninterrupted services to the beneficiaries even in the remote and peripheral areas as on june 30 officials said more than 1221 crores teleconsultations have been provided through esanjeevani portal