Hospitals in state lack sufficient accommodation: NRHM report

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 7

The state government faces the challenge of utilising the health system properly to achieve the goals of good public health. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in its recently issued report said a large number of healthcare institutions are located either in rented buildings or have insufficient accommodation.

It claimed that large numbers of institutions are without staff quarters. The responsibility of the government in providing an efficient and purposeful health system covering all aspects, such as health education, preventive, promotive and curative services, has considerably increased.

The report observed that for improving the healthcare system in the state, the major concerns are strengthening of public health infrastructure, restructuring the existing primary healthcare system to make it more accountable, reducing disease burden, establishing institutional framework for improved quality of health governance, investing in technology and human resources for more professional and skilled workforce and better monitoring and supervision.

“The state, while on one hand, is facing the shortage of specialists, MBBS doctors, nurses and other paramedics, the healthcare professionals, on the other hand, are unwilling to serve in rural and remote areas. For improving the availability of human resources in remote and difficult areas, several initiatives, like special incentives for serving in difficult and most-difficult areas, additional marks in the postgraduation (PG) entrance for serving in rural areas, hiring of additional doctors for PHCs in difficult areas and the selection of all categories of staff based on the local criteria, have been taken,” the NRHM report maintained.

The report said these concerns need to be resolutely addressed by combination of policies that will stimulate the process of reforms to achieve the goal of good health for the people of the state.

It added that the Panchayati Raj system being in place, the Village Health and Sanitation Committees have been constituted, but still much more needs to be done to make them fully functional, for which the intervention like community-based monitoring has been proposed for greater community involvement in planning and implementation of the Centrally sponsored programme.