‘Patient First’; endeavor to make J&K amongst best 5 in Health care in the country& promoting medical tourism: CS

Srinagar : National Health Mission (NHM), J&K in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) Friday celebrated World Health Day here at Government Dental College, Srinagar.
The occasion also saw the felicitation of Best Performers under Ayushman Bharat Comprehensive Primary Health Care and Kayakalp Awards. The day was celebrated as the 75th anniversary year with the theme “Health for All’ which aims at attaining good health for all for a fulfilling life in a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world.
Chief Secretary DrArun Kumar Mehta who presided over the function said the day is being celebrated to raise awareness about health issues and ensure that healthcare facilities are accessible to all.
Dr Mehta maintained that our collective endeavor should be to keep interests of patients paramount over all other concerns. He urged the medical professionals to adopt ‘Patient first policy’ for extending best medical care up to the satisfaction of all visiting the hospitals for their treatment.
He assured that turning J&K into the hub of medical tourism in future is the primary goal of LG administration. He revealed that with the promising prospects of the New Industrial Policy J&K has received dozens of proposals from medical entrepreneurs.
The Chief Secretary underscored the need for addressing gaps on Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) norms, which should be first priority for the administration this year. He made out that adoption of these guidelines would strengthening the Public Health Care Institutions. He said that we are going to put in best efforts to achieve high quality of health care across the J&K by following scientific and evidence based approach to health care.
The Chief Secretary reiterated that our health infrastructure is one of the best in the country. He stated that there should be no need for sending patients outside for any specialized treatment, except in rare cases.
In order to upgrade the services in our health care institutions continuously and keep up the spirit of competition among them, they should be evaluated every month on set parameters. He also asked for maintaining the health records of patients digitally for easy access and retrieval from anywhere in the world.
Dr Mehta emphasized that Anaemia, TB, Leprosy, Stunting, Malnutrition Mukt J&K is within our reach if everyone joins in the effort with sincerity. He remarked that such Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) are controlled by making certain interventions like early immunization and balanced diet and J&K is going to evolve a strategy to nip them all from its population. He suggested that in collaboration with schools the Health Department can carry out early identification and treatment of these maladies.
He asserted that the campaign of NashaMukt J&K should be owned by one and all to eradicate this menace from J&K. He said that the health workers have an additional responsibility to treat the victims of drug abuse with an empathetic approach as they are one among us and deserve better life and respect.
He made out that the number of Health institutions which qualified under Kayakalp has arisen from 73 last year to 175. Our aim is to cover 1000 health institutions in next one year and be amongst the best five in the country, he added.
Mission Director, NHM Ayushi Sudan earlier welcomed the officers present in the event and gave a brief of the importance of the celebration of the World Health Day.
The best performer districts under various categories were presented with trophies and the Chief Medical Officers and District Programme Management Staff were presented with certificates for their commendable work.
District Srinagar and District Shopian bagged first and second prize in operationalization of health and wellness centres.
District Budgam and District Rajouri bagged first and second prize in highest Teleconsultations.
District Ramban and District Budgam bagged first and second prize in highest performance linked payment and team based incentive to CPHC team.
District Budgam and District Ganderbal bagged first and second prize in highest NCD screening. District Anantnag and District Ganderbal bagged first and second prize in highest NCD diagnosed.
District Shopian and District Budgam bagged first and second prize in highest NCD follow up.
District Poonch and District Ganderbal bagged first and second prize in highest ABHA ID seeding. Also, the CPHC team was awarded for the appreciable work done.
The Kayakalp assessment conducted this year in the J&K, saw 175 health facilities bagging the Kayakalp Award across all levels of public health facilities.
The Chief Secretary complimented the team led by Secretary Health & Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, for the achievement. A total of 4 District Hospitals, 23 CHCs, 56 PHCs, 7 UPHCs and about 85 Health & Wellness Centres qualified Kayakalp criteria as per the Govt. of India guidelines and checklist in a rigorous 3-tier assessment process.
Under the District Hospitals, Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar, Jammu was felicitated. Under the Community Health Centre category, CHC Katra, Reasi was awarded.
Under the Primary Health Centre category, PHC Ukheral, Ramban and PHC Bugam, Kulgam were awarded.
Under the Urban Primary Health Centre category, UPHC Batamallo, Srinagar was felicitated. Under the Health and Wellness Centre Subcentre, HWC Purmandal, Samba, HWC Putshai, Kupwara, HWC Manoon, Katra, Reasi and HWC Yangoora, Ganderbal were awarded.
Also, the Quality and Patient Safety Team, State Health Society, NHM was awarded for the appreciable work done.
The event also had the launch of the IPHS Gap Assessment report of CHC. The assessment was undertaken by NHM in collaboration with Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI), to assess the current status of health system and also to identify gaps which need to be addressed for strengthening health care delivery.