PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The Dehradun Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma said that every medical unit should identify pregnant women in disaster-prone areas, whose expected delivery dates fall during the rainy season. He said this during a recent review meeting of the National Health Mission (NHM).
In the meeting, Sharma assessed the physical and financial progress of national health programmes at the district level. He instructed that the pregnant women should be admitted to the nearest medical centre one week prior to their expected delivery dates to ensure safe institutional deliveries. He highlighted that, for the current financial year, all efforts should be made to achieve 100 per cent of the targets outlined in the ROP approved by the Central government. Special attention should be laid on ante-natal care (ANC) check-ups and institutional deliveries in order to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates to zero. Additionally, he stressed the importance of completing vaccinations for mothers and children in high-risk areas and regularly evaluating the child health check-ups conducted by the mobile health teams based on a pre-approved plan.
Sharma also addressed health screening at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, instructing that patients exhibiting possible cancer symptoms should be referred for further evaluation and monitored regularly. During the review of the Communicable Disease Programme, he said that positive cases of Covid-19 and dengue reported by various medical units should be re-verified before being entered into the portal. He directed that effective awareness activities should be conducted in sensitive areas to prevent dengue during the monsoon season, with proactive measures taken by the local block medical units to quickly and effectively control the spread of the disease. He emphasised the need to implement health programmes and beneficiary-oriented schemes promptly and effectively in the second quarter.
The meeting also featured presentations from the chief medical superintendents of the district hospital and sub-district hospital, as well as the medical superintendents of the block medical units. They provided details about their targets related to health programmes, the activities currently being carried out and action plans for the financial year. Key components discussed included institutional deliveries, ANC check-ups, vaccinations, Janani Suraksha Yojana and others.
