Dehradun, 24 July (HS). A concrete action plan will be prepared to reduce maternal mortality rate in the state, so that along with improving the MMR figures at the national level, it can be brought down to two digits. Apart from this, special campaigns will be run at the district level to remove anemia among children and women. For wide publicity of the departmental schemes, the IEC department has been instructed to work under the action plan at the state and district level.
On Wednesday, Medical Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat held a review meeting of the third phase of the National Health Mission in the NHM auditorium located at the Directorate General of Health. In the meeting, the Education Minister asked to work on preparing a detailed action plan to reduce maternal mortality rate in the state. The responsibility of preparing the action plan was handed over to NHM Advisor and former Health Director General Dr. Tripti Bahuguna. Instructions have been given to focus especially on the districts where the situation of maternal mortality rate is serious. So that the maternal mortality rate can be reduced to 70 per one lakh live births under SDG Target 2030.
He said that at present the maternal mortality rate at the national level is 103 per one lakh while the maternal mortality rate of the whole country is 97. Similarly, instructions have been given to the departmental officers to run special campaigns to remove anemia among children and women in the state. Dr. Rawat told that dialysis facilities are being provided under NHM. Under this, instructions have been given to equip all the district and sub-district hospitals of the state with dialysis facilities so that kidney patients do not have to visit big hospitals.
The departmental minister expressed displeasure over the functioning of IEC at the state and district level and stressed the need for improvement. He said that IEC plays an important role in making the departmental schemes reach the people. For which IEC was directed to prepare a special action plan at the state and district level to accelerate the promotion of health schemes, and was also asked to organize IEC workshops every three months. The construction works being carried out under NHM were also reviewed in the meeting, in which he directed the departmental officers to complete all the works on time.
In the meeting, Vice President of National Rural Health and Monitoring Council Uttarakhand Suresh Bhatt, Vice Chancellor Uttarakhand Medical University Prof. ML Brahma Bhatt, MD NHM Swati Bhadoria, Advisor NHM Dr. Tripti Bahuguna, Additional Secretary Finance Amita Joshi, Director General Health Dr. Tara Arya, Director Dr. Sunita Tamta, Dr. Meetu Shah, Finance Controller NHM Deepali Bharne, CMO Dehradun Dr. Sanjay Jain, Dr. RK Singh, Dr. Tuhin Kumar, Dr. Pankaj Singh, Dr. Mahendra Maurya, Dr. Ajay Nagarkar, Dr. Fariduzaffar, Dr. Uma Rawat and other departmental officers were present, while Chief Medical Officers and DPMs of all the districts participated in the meeting through virtual medium.