Srinagar, June 22(Scoop News)- Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad today launched new welfare scheme for the pregnant women in the country.
Under the newly announced scheme, every pregnant woman from initial pregnancy stage to delivery would receive free treatment and transport facilities from her home to hospital and back. The Scheme envisages that the Government will bear all the expenses on the hospitalization of women besides the new born babies would be provided medical care up to one year.
The announcement was made by the Minister while chairing a high-level meeting of officers, convened here to review the implementation process of Centrally Sponsored schemes under health sector in Jammu and Kashmir.
Elaborating details about the newly launched sops for the mother and child, Azad said that under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karikram (JSSK), the Government has extended more incentives for the pregnant women to facilitate their safe institutional deliveries. “Now onward every pregnant woman right from the day first of her conceiving the baby and till the delivery, the Government will bear all expenses on her treatment, including transportation from her home to hospital and back besides medication. In case of caesarians, the women will be entitled to get free treatment up to 45 days”, he said and added that the Government would also bear all expenses on the treatment of sick born babies up to one year of delivery.
Union Health Minister that Central Government has also announced free treatment for the patients who are suffering from serious ailments like Cancer, heart ailments, kidney and liver problems. He said Government bears all expenditure on the treatment of poor patients in all Government hospitals where these facilities are available after completion of certain formalities. He exhorted upon the Chief Medical Officers/Block Medical Offices to create awareness amongst the patients for availing these benefits.
In order to further augment the rural health services, the Union Minister announced setting up of 600 new health sub- centres in the uncovered areas of the State. He also announced a provision of Rs. 60 crore for strengthening the drug testing laboratories to overcome the menace of spurious drugs in the state. He directed the Controller Drugs & Food Control Organization to submit a proposal in this regard within a week’s time.
Minister for Medical Education, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmad Khan were also present in the meeting.
The Union Health Minister said that under the newly launched Urban Health Mission Scheme, the primary health infrastructure of seven cities of Jammu and Kashmir would be upgraded, adding that cities like Baramulla, Sopore, Anantnag and Srinagar in Kashmir division and Udhampur, Kathua and Jammu in Jammu division would be covered in the first phse..
While taking detailed appraisal of all sponsored schemes and overall health scenario in the State, Azad said that UPA Government in the Centre headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accorded top most priority to the health sector and several schemes have been launched for the benefit of the people, especially for the poor and rural areas. He said National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched to upgrade the health infrastructure particularly for rural areas. After the launch of this flagship programme a substantial improvement has been recorded in the health sector across the country.
The Union Minister said that UPA Government prioritized four major areas viz; road connectivity, education and health which were basic and fundamental needs of the people. During the past over some years substantial progress has been registered in these sectors. He said Centre brought hilly States including Jammu and Kashmir into the special category and provided adequate funds for improving these three sectors with negligible State share. He expressed satisfaction on the achievements in Jammu and Kashmir on the steps initiated by the State Government to improve the health scenario.
Expressing concern over the shortage of manpower, especially in the rural and far-flung areas, the Union Minister stressed the need for rationalizaiton of staff strictly as per the work load of the institutions. He said under NRHM the Centre has already made substantial increase in the incentives of doctors and para-medics who will serve in the far-flung areas, adding that all gaps should be filled with the posting of manpower under the programme. He also called for time bound completion of all on-going projects with judicious use of funds. He also called for strengthening the monitoring mechanism to ensure quality parameters and timely completion of projects.
Expressing concern over the unnecessary referral by the Primary Health Centres and district hospitals to tertiary healthcare centres, the Union Minister stressed the need for discouraging this practice to avoid unnecessary crowd in the Medical Colleges. He called for equipping the district hospitals appropriately to attend all types of patients except of serious nature which require specialized treatment in the tertiary centres. The concerned doctors will have to give the reason for referring the particular patient to the higher institutions.
The Union Minister interacted with each Chief Medical Officers and enquired about the problems which they face at the grass root level. He issued necessary instructions to the higher authorities for plugging the gaps so that patients get best medical facilities in the government institutions. He also stressed for coordinate approach to achieve better results.
Commissioner/Secretary Health & Medical Education, Shaleen Kabra and Mission Director, NRHM, Dr. Yashpal Sharma in gave resume of the activities of the department including all sponsored schemes.
Prominent among those present on the occasion included, Union Joint Secretary Health & Family Welfare, Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary/Mission Director, GoI, Ms. Anuradha Gupta, Director Indian System of Medicines (J&K), Dr. Abdul Kabir, Controller Drugs & Food Control Organization, Satish Gupta, Project Director, J&K AIDS Control Society, Dr. Madhu Khullar, Director Health Services, Kashmir, Dr. Saleem-ur-Rehman, all Chief Medical Officers/Medical Superintendents, Block Medical Officers and all other concerned officers of the health department.