Meghalaya Health Minister Inaugurates MHSSP Office In Shillong

HT Bureau

SHILLONG, Aug 24: Minister of Health and Family Welfare, James. P. K Sangma on Wednesday inaugurated the office of the Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project (MHSSP) at DHS complex, Laitumkhrah, Shillong. He stated that this project can prove to be a major game changer in bringing about improvements in not only the overall health indicators of the people of Meghalaya, but more so, in improving the sustainable development goal indicators of the State. The Health minister graced the occasion as the chief guest.

Addressing the gathering, the Health minister stated that the MHSSP is following a very organic approach towards improving the health indicators of people in the State. He added that a major problem that the Government departments face at this hour is the fact that they are working in silos. Through the MHSSP, a convergence approach is being adopted in order to address the critical gaps through effective gap analysis in the sector. He further went on to congratulate the entire MHSSP team and said that the possibility of scaling up projects such as MHSSP can be seen to also strengthen the other departments of the State Government.

It may be mentioned that the Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project (MHSSP) was signed on 28^th October, 2021 between the Government of Meghalaya and World Bank – International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and was declared effective from 26^th November, 2021 for a period of five years. MHSSP aims to strengthen the overall public health system and improve access to quality health care for the people of Meghalaya. Its vision is to improve primary and secondary health output parameters of the State by creating an organic integration between data, health infrastructure, capacity building and community strength. The project development objective (PDO) is to improve management capacity, quality and utilisation of health services in Meghalaya.

The Health minister also took stock of the progress and updates on MHSSP in a meeting with important state level officers and doctors.
The Health minister, in his meeting with senior officials from the Department of Health & Family Welfare as well as the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) gave important suggestions and recommendations with respect to not only MHSSP, but also for the improvement of major health indicators in the State through a collaborative, inter departmental approach as well as through involvement of various stakeholders.