Govt. unveils strategy to improve health care

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 27. The State Government is planning to plug loopholes in the healthcare system by not only ensuring medical facilities for people within the reach but also is adopting measures to ensure that the staff stays in headquarters.

According to the strategy paper on Health and Family Welfare released by the Minister for Health, Dr.S. Aruna, here on Saturday, the challenges ahead in the healthcare sector could be countered only with a coordinated action among various departments.

Convergence of services at the field level in collaboration with other departments like Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Municipal Administration, Women and Child Welfare and Education was necessary if the Vision-2020 goals had to be achieved, she said. The Minister said that adoption of primary health centres and sub-centres by senior administrative and technical officers of the department would go a long way in improving the performance of the health centres.

Dr. Aruna said that providing healthcare facilities in school to improve the health delivery system, upgrading skills of staff in conducting family welfare operations were part of the strategy.

She said there was considerable improvement in the health status of the population in the State. Smallpox had been eradicated and the child mortality rate had come down from 113 per 1,000 lives to 66 in the last 30 years. Allocation to the health sector had gone up from Rs.560 crores in 1994-95 to Rs. 1,500 crores in 2000-2001.

The strategy paper emphasises the need of new policy initiatives in the areas of social concern. Referring to the low median age of marriages for females prevailing in the State, it lays emphasis on literacy levels, particularly among women. Promotion of spacing methods and terminal methods and increased use of contraceptives would be the mainstay of the campaign now, it says.

To increase the levels of institutional deliveries (currently at 32.9 per cent) and domiciliary deliveries by medical and para medical personnel and trained birth attendants, improved referral systems for emergency obstetric care and increased accessibility of quality services for medical termination of pregnancies and for treatment of reproductive tract infections are some other measures.

Dr. Aruna said that the World Bank-funded AP First Referral Health System Project had led to improvement in health services infrastructure in 12,164 centres. The emphasis was on disease prevention and control on nutrition, sanitation, personal hygiene and fitness of people.

Strengthening tertiary care in existing Government hospitals, focus on communicable diseases, increasing role for Indian systems of medicine, strengthening process of institutional development, training to community health workers and their posting to all remote and tribal villages and identifying one DWCRA group leader in each village to be trained to deliver basic health services on call basis at a rate fixed by the community and holding of health camps every week in two villages at least were some other steps being envisaged.

Referring to the efforts made so far, she said that malaria had declined by 47.2 per cent in 2000 compared to 1996 (53,702 cases as against 1,27,814) and gastroenteritis cases had come down to 7,557 from 25,308. Similarly, deaths had come down to 73 from 528, she said.

The percentage of positive cases had come down from 92 per cent in 1995-96 to 74 per cent in 2000-2001. The number of cataract operations performed was exceeding the annual target and the case fatality rate in Japanese Encephalitis had been brought down to 20.9 per cent from 32.5 per cent.

Two high-level committees would be set up to suggest measures to control communicable diseases and a State- level action plan would be prepared to tackle diseases. Creating an awareness about the dangers of AIDS and educating everyone in this regard and creating a computerised library network (tele medicine) were among the other important measures, she added.

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Section  : Southern States
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