Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project Director and Health Department Special Secretary Pankaj Kumar Bansal has directed the health officials to encourage child births at the Government health institutions in Coimbatore.
Reviewing the performance indicators of four districts here on Friday, he said that the State ratio of deliveries was 70 per cent in the Government health institutions and 30 in private sector, officials who took part in the meeting told The Hindu .
However, Coimbatore had recorded 60 per cent of total deliveries in the Government health institutions. Officials attributed this to the high concentration of private hospitals in the district.
He told the officials that the Government had improved the infrastructure at Primary Health Centres and the Government Hospitals across Tamil Nadu through upgrading the equipment and posting additional staff. The officials must achieve commensurate results in deliveries.
Further, he also instructed the officials to carefully implement the Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Assistance Scheme, under which financial aid was given to pregnant woman provided they undertook the requisite medical tests for ensuring safe delivery. Mr. Bansal urged the Health Department staff to undertake a campaign among the people to highlight the infrastructure created at the Government health institutions.
He also called for covering more people under the non-communicable diseases campaign in which people above 30 years are screened for hypertension, diabetes and its complications, breast cancer and cervical cancer.
Director of Public Health K. Kulandaisamy gave instructions to ensure the effective implementation of ‘Hospital-On-Wheels’ (HoW) project, under which specially-fabricated ambulances equipped with a range of medical equipment would carry Health Department officials to remote villages for periodical medical camps. The PHCs and GHs must accord priority to tackle diseases such as dengue. All such fever cases must be reported to the Health Department and measures must be initiated to prevent epidemic breakouts, he added.
Public Health officials, PHC and GH Medical Officers from the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode districts took part.