The Department of Health Services has launched Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), a comprehensive school health care programme, to cover more than 80,000 children in Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres and schools in the district.
The Centrally-sponsored programme is a new initiative aimed at early identification and intervention for children from birth to 18 years of age to cover four ‘Ds’ – Defects at birth, Deficiencies, Diseases and Development delays, including disability.
The department of Health Services launched the programme in April after forming 22 teams – two teams each for the 11 blocks in the district – each headed by a doctor and comprising a nurse and a pharmacist, Dr S. Bavani Uma Devi, Deputy Director of Health Services, told The Hindu here on Thursday.
Referred to GH
“The teams have covered about 21,000 children in the age group of 1 to 6 in 1,400 ICDS centres in the district,” she said, adding the teams, after examining the children for various deficiencies, had referred about 100 children to the Government Headquarters Hospital for further treatment.
As the schools reopened on Monday, the teams would organise health camps in all the about 1,000 government, private and aided schools in the district and cover the 60,000 and odd children in the age group of 6 to 18 years, she said.
Visit
The teams would visit all the ICDS centres and schools thrice a year, she said.
The teams would provide on-the-spot treatment to children who were affected by nutritional deficiencies, scabies and other minor ailments, and refer children affected by congenital and other disorders to government hospitals.
Before the launch of the RBSK programme, teams of doctors from Primary Health Centres were deputed to examine schoolchildren on every Thursday.
Besides, the schoolchildren were exclusively screened for eye problems by block-level ophthalmic assistants, Dr. Devi added.
