J&K CM for concerted efforts to maintain No. 1 position in health sector
Scoop News
November 30, 2010 Srinagar, November 30 (Scoop News) - J&K Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday underlined the need for concerted efforts to maintain the No. 1 position in health sector amongst the bigger states emphasizing on improvement and upgradation of delivery system at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
“Our benchmark of services delivery in health sector has enhanced by obtaining the status of No. 1 State, as such coordinated approach and redoubled efforts are required to maintaining this position in future”, he said calling for a focused attention on management and services in the government hospitals.
The Chief Minister said that the huge infrastructure development in the health sector should match with the delivery of health care services to the people. “Good infrastructure raises the expectations of the people for excellent service”, he said and emphasized on coming upto the expectations of people in this regard.
Chairing the 3rd meeting of the Task Force on Health Sector Reforms here this morning, the Chief Minister noted the need for identifying areas both in the services and assets fields for PPP mode utilization.
“While selecting the partners in PPP mode, the transparency and safeguards for the common people should be the basic ingredients”, he said adding that the referral status of the Super Specialty Hospitals should necessarily remain intact while going for PPP mode in services sector.
The Chief Minister said that a mechanism was urgently required to place necessary faculties in the 15 super specialty health care disciplines coming up in
Omar Abdullah directed for routing the proposals with financial implications and administrative niceties through the Finance and Administrative Department so that such matters are reviewed in depth by the concerned departments, before putting these to Task Force for decisions.
“You should also enquire from various heads of the departments in health and medical education sector for inclusion of any issue or suggestion in the agenda to be prepared for the Task Force to deliberate upon”, he said emphasizing on a holistic approach in formulation of agenda. “The necessary documents required for agenda items should also be made available with the agenda copies for ready reference”, he said.
The Ministers for Health and Medical Education, Sham Lal Sharma and R. S. Chib highlighted the measures in place for strengthening and upgrading the health care facilities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. They pin pointed issues requiring coordinated approach to deal with.
Sham Lal Sharma spoke in length about the steps taken by the health department to reach out to the people across the State on the front of healthcare. He said that Health Department was looking forward upgrade its services to people in general and particularly to those living in remote areas.
On medical education sector, R. S. Chib dwelt in detail about the measure under way to provide befitting faculties to the hospitals and work out feasible PPP models to implement.
Chief Secretary, S. S. Kapur underscoring the importance of telemedicine network stressed on utilizing available resources and focusing on taking care of requirements of far-flung areas in this field.
“Till the launch of Rs.141 crore project, proposed by the SKIMS for the purpose, available facility needed to be used to link the main hospitals and health centers internally before expanding the orbit of telemedicine network externally”, he said adding that government would pursue the project referred to the Union Ministry of Information Technology for funding.
Kapur also laid stress on delivery of services, management and control of hospitals saying that the fabulous hospital infrastructure needed to be manned by the fabulous management and qualified faculties to achieve the goal of extending best health cover to the people.
The Chief Secretary also emphasized on coordinated approach by the health and medical education department for working out a good example of PPP mode in feasible areas of health care delivery and other disciplines.
On disposal of hospital waste, the Chief Secretary said that the health and Medical Education Department should focus on this aspect positively utilizing the available facility in the State.
The Convener of the Task Force, Dr. Nagpal recommended the constitution of nodal agency regarding launch of health insurance scheme to the uncovered sections of the society in the State. He also suggested nodal agency for looking into the issues of accreditation of hospitals so that both the important aspects are taken care of in a prescribed time line.
The Chief Minister constituted nodal agency of health and medical education department to be assisted by the rural development, Labour and social welfare departments to finalize the health insurance policy to cover the uncovered section of the society on the pattern of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
He also constituted a Core Group comprising of Director SKIMS, Principals of Government Medical Colleges,
The meeting discussed issues pertaining to the establishment of Ayurvedic and Unani Colleges at Jammu and Srinagar, setting up of information communication technology network, measuring physical activities to health care and population coverage modeling in the State, status of RSBY scheme, medicinal tourism, public-private-partnership in health care, draft drug policy, establishment of clinical research department in medical colleges of the State, telemedicine network, separate university for medical education, biometric monitoring, accreditation of public hospitals, etc.
In his vote of thanks Dr. Nagpal expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for chairing the result-oriented and decision making sitting of the Task Force and taking keen interest in the comprehensive development of health sector in the State.
The meeting among others was attended by Minister of State for Health and Medical Education, Javid Ahmad Dar, Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education, R. K. Jearth, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary Labour and Employment, G. A. Peer, Director SKIMS, Prof. Abdul Hamid Zargar, Dr. G. Q. Allaqband, Principals of Jammu and Srinagar Medical Colleges, Directors of Health, Kashmir and Jammu, Director Indian System of Medicines, Principal Dental College Srinagar and other members of the Task Force and senior officers of various departments.
Tags: Health Sector , J&K , Kashmir , Omar , Shyam , Chib
