Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today reviewed the functioning of Health & Medical Education Department here at Raj Bhavan.
Sh. Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lt Governor; Sh. BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education and other senior officers attended the meeting.
The Lt Governor directed the concerned officers to ensure that adequate medical facilities are made available at all the Health Centres with special focus on Primary and Community Health Centres across the UT. Proper inventories of medical equipments and medicines shall also be maintained at PHCs, CHCs, health and wellness centres.
He further directed for strengthening of monitoring system of Health department, besides updating all the available facilities and costs on the official website for information of the public.
“As we are aiming to improve the health care system of J&K to make it best in the country, the objective of providing best possible medical care to the patients visiting the Hospitals cannot be compromised at any cost”, the Lt Governor maintained.
Stressing on strengthening of human resources in the CHC’s and PHC’s, the Lt Governor asked the concerned authorities to prepare a data base and rationalise the available staff, besides filling up the vacancies of Doctors, nurses and other health workers immediately so as to strengthen the patient care system.
To ensure the retention of the Doctors in rural areas, he directed for additional incentives to the Doctors serving in these areas.
He directed that all District Hospitals should have Dialysis facilities and called for recruitment of specialists in District Hospitals, including Cardiologists, Radiologists etc.
The Lt Governor also laid emphasis on strengthening of healthcare infrastructure, especially in rural areas, which is one of the most crucial aspects of effective healthcare system.
He directed that the maternity benefits be made available under Pradhan Mantri Matritav Vandana Yojna to every beneficiary without delay, emphasising coordination between Social Welfare and Health Departments.
Taking serious note of the rise in COVID cases in Kashmir division, the Lt Governor directed for aggressive contact tracing of COVID positive patients to contain the deadly virus, particularly in Srinagar.
He further directed for achieving the targets under the various Health programmes envisaged by the Centre and the UT Government for the welfare and better health of the people.
Sh. Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education gave a detailed briefing on major achievements of the department and implementation of various health care programmes.
He also informed about the status of Health Indicators, Health Infrastructure, Medical Education, Nursing / Paramedic Education, Legal & Policy Framework, Human Resources, Ayushman Bharat, National Health Mission; Operationalization of 102/108 Ambulance Service; Action Plan for reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR); present status of important projects like Cancer Institute at GMC Jammu; establishment of 2 AIIMS; new Medical Colleges etc.
On Universal Health Coverage, the Lt Governor was informed that Health & Medical Education Department has rolled out ‘Jammu and Kashmir Health Scheme’, which shall provide health coverage free of cost to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir who are not covered presently under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). The scheme will cover approximately 15 lakh families over and above those already covered under AB-PMJAY.
On implementation of Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP), the chair was informed that about 70 dialysis machines provided by MoHFW have been installed at fifteen (15) District Hospitals including District Hospital, Leh & District Hospital, Kargil. To operationalize the dialysis units, existing manpower of health department have been trained at SKIMS, Srinagar and Super-Speciality Hospital, Jammu. In the current financial year 2020-21, five (5) more District Dialysis Centres are approved and shall be made functional at Samba, Reasi, Ramban, Shopian and Ganderbal.