National Health Mission, Assam conducts Swasthya Manthan- 4

Reduction of maternal, infant mortality tops NHM’s priority list

HT Bureau

GUWAHATI, Nov 1: National Health Mission, Assam organised a two-day long Swasthya Manthan -4 from October 31 with support from Ipas Foundation at Assam Water Centre, Guwahati.

The review workshop was held with participants from all the districts, led by the joint director of Health Services, CMO (CD), SDM&HO, district programme managers, zonal engineer (Electrical), project engineer (Civil), assistant engineer (Civil), junior engineer (Civil), junior engineer (Instrumentation), district drug store manager, block programme managers among others. 

Further, a district-wise review was held on the health performance of each district, and discussions were held on how to improve the health of children and mothers. It is expected to determine any further course correction that may be required by the districts and any handholding required to improve the health indicators. 

At Tuesday’s review meet, the best performers from the state and district were also felicitated by minister Keshab Mahanta for their hard work and dedication towards improving the health system in their respective districts. 

It is worth mentioning here that as per reported figures Assam has shown improvement in the Health Indicators –

– The number of Maternal Death cases in 2022-23 (April – September) is reported as 289 against 384 number of deaths in 2021-22 (April – September), showing a decline of 95 deaths (25%).

– The number of Child Death cases in 2022-23 (April – September) is reported as 3,523 against 3,842 number of deaths in 2021-22 (April – September), showing a decline of 319 deaths (8.3%). 

The health minister appreciated the efforts made by Health & Family Welfare for improvement of the health indicators.

Health minister Mahanta also did the state launch of a few health initiatives for Assam, such as:

– PAALAN Programme: The Paalan 1000 campaign aims to provide a better future and extra care to the children during the first 1000 days. The paalan 1000 journey of the first 1000 days focuses on the physical and mental growth of children and their cognitive development of children.

– Financial assistance to parents of SNCU discharged high risk newborn for facility follow up: A total of Rs 1000 will be transferred to the accounts of parents directly at Rs 200 per visit which will improve the facility follow up, thereby reducing the neonatal and infant mortality and morbidity in the schemes.

– Tele Manas Program: Tele MANAS aims to provide free tele mental health services all over the state. Establishing a new milestone in the field of mental health programs.

– A monitoring tool for HBNC & ANC services: In order to utilise the field level data more  efficiently and to ensure quality home visit for HBNC and ANC services, an online tool has  been developed which enables us to collect data from field using a mobile app and view the  report on dashboard at district and state level.

The inaugural session was launched by Keshab Mahanta, Health minister of Assam in the presence of Avinash Joshi, principal secretary – Health; Dr M S Lakshmi Priya, mission director, NHM, Assam; Dr. Nilmadhab Das, director of Health Services; Dr Ashok Roy, director RRC-NE, Pankaj Chamuah, ACS, OSD NHM Assam, state programme officials and district programme officials, NHM Assam.