August 12, 2008 :The Himachal Pradesh Government would be considering setting up of a separate medical university in the state to regulate and cater to the requirements of the upcoming medical colleges and health institutions. This was revealed by Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, in the review meeting of the Health and Family Welfare Department held here under his Chairmanship today.
Chief Minister said that health sector was on the priority agenda of the state government and private players were being motivated to set up medical colleges and centres of par excellence in the state to provide internationally recognized medical education as also diagnostic facilities to the people in the state. He said that additionally there was a vast network of about 4,000 health institutions in the state delivering people health services near to their homes. He said that need had emerged to create a separate body in the shape of a Medical University to regulate the functioning and oversee other requirements of all such institutions so that it could produce high professionals in different medical discipline. He said that efforts were being made to set up green field medical colleges in Mandi, Solan and Hamirpur, where the interests of the state and local residents would be protected.
Prof. Dhumal said that health indicators in the state were among the top states in the country and the network providing coverage to every habitation from a reasonable distance. He said that Himachal Pradesh happened to be one of the top states where 70 percent of its population was dependant for its medical requirements upon the government owned health institutions. He said that efforts were afoot to upgrade the infrastructural facilities to cater to the specialized medical services to the people by hiring the services of private practiceners. He emphasized the need to train the village ‘dais’ with skill upgradation crash courses to ensure safe delivery in the rural homes and consider reasonable incentive to them after getting the verification report from the concerned gram panchayat pradhan and the mother of the new born child thereby generating self employment to the rural women. He said that the state government would be envisioning the Mahila Swasthya Karya Karta scheme to cater to the minor medical requirements of the rural population. He said that all such programmes would reduce burden on the local health institutions besides saving the time and money of the patients. He said that the state government had decided to provide IRDP families free medical facilities in all the health institutions of the state as also implement the health insurance scheme for the family. He said that the prescription slip charges had already been withdrawn in all the hospitals.
Chief Minister directed the medical authorities to launch TB eradication programme more effectively besides monitoring the polio immunization and other national programmes in the state. He said that the anemia amongst the women was also a matter of concern which needed to be looked after by taking necessary remedial steps to save people from such ailments. He said that the low female sex ratio in the age group of zero to six needed to be addressed seriously which was very important to maintain the sex ratio amongst the future generations. He said that people needed to be educated about the short fall of the sex imbalances which could create a number of problems in coming years. He said that possibilities also needed to be explored to carry AIDS tests before the marriage of young people to help them lead a successful and healthy life.
Dr. Rajiv Bindal, Health Minister, welcomed the Chief Minister, said that innovative programmes were being envisioned in the health sector to build a strong Himachal Pradesh. He said that the T.B.Sanatorium at Dharampur was being strengthened to cater to the latest treatment facilities to the TB patients. He said that a special campaign would be launched to eradicate anemia in the state. He assured the Chief Minister that the department would rise to the satisfaction of the government and implement every promise made in the Election Manifesto and Budget Assurances.
Smt. Asha Swaroop, Chief Secretary, emphasized the need to launch TB Awareness campaigns all over the state to make Himachal Pradesh TB free state. She said that the department needed to shift its focus from tertiary to primary sector to deliver people prompt medical facilities for minor common ailments.
Shri Deepak Sanan, Principal Secretary Health, detailed the achievements and targets of the department and also revealed about the future vision of the department to make Himachal Pradesh a healthy state in all respects. He said that recruitment process of the medical professionals had been completed by posting them in the rural and difficult areas where the posts were lying vacant.
Shri Bhim Sen, Principal Secretary to the CM, Shri Arvind Mehta, Principal Secretary Finance, Dr. Sulakshana Puri, Director of Health Services, Shri Rajeev Sharma, Additional Director of Health Services, Dr. Surender Kashyap, Principal, IGMC and other senior officers of the department were present.