By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 8 Jul: State Health and Medical Education Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat has issued strict instructions to the officers of the Health Department to improve functioning and to ensure access of the common man to the schemes meant to benefit the people. It may be recalled that, despite various instructions and directions issued from time to time, there is not much improvement seen in the functioning of the department and the callousness continues. Taking serious note of the lack of sincerity towards improving the health services, Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat today again issued a stern warning to the department. Following this, the Health Directorate has issued letters to all the Chief Medical Officers of the state directing them to improve the health services and make them more accessible to the people. At the direction of the minister, it has also been decided to nominate a nodal officer at the district level to maintain mutual coordination and ensure that patients receive better health facilities.
This has happened after a review held in this regard by Health Minister Dhan Singh Rawat on Wednesday. The Health Department has swung into action as a result. At the meeting, the minister had expressed displeasure at the functioning of the department as well as at the department not giving wide publicity to various health schemes run by the government. He had observed that the government is providing many free healthcare facilities to the people, but due to departmental negligence, the common people are not aware of the various schemes. Rawat also directed the officials to make available the details of free drug distribution, free diagnosis, free pathology tests in hospitals and display them prominently in the hospitals.
Rawat also directed the officers to put up Citizen Charter hoardings in government hospitals, stations, district development buildings, tehsil offices, and public places for wide publicity of free health services and free helpline numbers 102 and 104, so that free healthcare could be ensured for the general public. The minister directed the officers not to display the name of any private institution in the hospital premises, but only the names of government medical units and medical providers. He further also directed the officers to ensure provision of health facilities in remote areas by expanding telemedicine services in the state. For this, training needed to be provided to doctors and paramedical staff from time to time.
Rawat stressed that nodal officers should be nominated at district and block levels for the use of social media, so that along with timely disposal of complaints received through social media, wider publicity could be given to the health schemes. One nodal officer would also be nominated at the district level for coordination among the hospitals in the districts so that 95 percent patients could be treated at the district level, itself, and the rest could be referred to higher medical centres.
Director General, Health and Family Welfare, Dr Shailaja Bhatt has sent a letter to all the Chief Medical Officers asking them to follow the high level instructions with immediate effect.
