Health Dept’s ‘i-Sehat’ plan gives encouraging results

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 26

The District Health Department is getting an encouraging response from the “i-Sehat” (Tikakaran Suneha) programme, which was launched earlier last month. Presently, the department is sending messages to around 40,000 parents regarding immunisation schedule of their children. The department had started the programme by enrolling 22,000 parents, for receiving the message appraising vaccination schedule of their children.

District family welfare officer, Dr Ranjit Singh Buttar, said, “Health workers at various immunisation centres have reported that the number of children coming for vaccination has increased.” He said the department had a set a target to send the message to around 1.17 lakh parents, whose children are below the age of one and half years.

Messages are sent twice a month on Tuesdays to inform parents about when their child is scheduled to get another dose of vaccination. “Parents generally forget to take their children for immunisation due to their hectic life style. We ensure that they get message in time,” said Buttar.

The child immunisation service is being provided by government health institutions on every Wednesday. At present, the health authorities opine that a large number of children miss their inoculation, besides they do not visit health centres regularly.

Dr Buttar said the programme would be gradually linked with the e-governance server, which would enable them to send personalised message to parents. The programme is the brain child of former Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat, who was transferred to Ludhiana recently.

The message includes name of the child as well as the date on which the injection is due, besides addresses of the nearest health facility, where the service can be availed.