NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the State Governments to pay adequate attention to health care and ensure efficient functioning of public health service. He will also convene a special meeting of the National Development Council to discuss health care, disease control and public health issues.

Review meeting

Chairing a review meeting on the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission, Dr. Singh also emphasised on the need for greater investment in medical education, including nursing, especially in States where there is an acute shortage of seats in nursing and medicine.

Briefing the Prime Minister on the progress made in implementing the programme on the ground, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said that the best performing states have been identified as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. The performance has been average in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab and Uttarakhand while Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh have been the worst performers.

The Prime Minister was told that there was a need for reforms in the medical education system by making the MBBS course more relevant to rural health service, a need for developing a three-year programme for Basic Medical Practice, compulsory rural posting of doctors and improved cadre management of doctors, nurses and health care workers besides announcing incentives for remote primary health centres and community health centres.

Improvement

As far as the progress made in implementing the programme in the two years is concerned, the Prime Minister was informed that reports from States indicated that there was significant improvement in infrastructure development and accessibility to health care service.

A booklet on the achievements of the NRHM presented to Dr. Singh said in Bihar the average number of patients visiting a primary health centre every month had gone up from 39 in January 2006 to 3,015 in August 2006.

Similar trends were seen in Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

In the institutional deliveries, there had been an increase in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Haryana, Assam and Rajasthan.

Almost all States had put in place an effective system of procurement of drugs and immunisation coverage had shown an increase in Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh.

More than 4.55 lakh health workers have been identified and are at various stages of enrolment, 6,644 primary health centres have started functioning round-the-clock and thousands of doctors, nurses and para-medical staff have been employed on a contractual basis.

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