The Community Health Centre (CHC), the third tier of the network of rural health care institutions, was required to act primarily as a referral centre (for the neighbouring PHCs, usually 4 in number) for the patients requiring specialised health care services. The objective of having a referral centre for the primary health care institutions was two-fold; to make modern health care services accessible to the rural people and to ease the overcrowding in the district hospitals.The CHCs were accordingly designed to be equipped with : four specialists in the areas of medicine, surgery, paediatrics and gynaecology; 30 beds for indoor patients; operation theatre, labour room, X-ray machine, pathological laboratory, standby generator , etc., along with the complementary medical and para medical staff. At the instance of Planning Commission, the Programme Evaluation Organisation undertook. the study to evaluate the functioning of the Community Health Centres (CHCs) and their effectiveness in bringing specialised health care services within the reach of rural people.
