Quality a must in healthcare: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda

GUWAHATI/KAZIRANGA: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda has said that health being a sensitive subject it is very essential that quality is maintained in healthcare delivery.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 5th National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Health Care Systems at Kaziranga, Nadda said: "We've to be very careful insofar as the skill is concerned, and we have to see how skill can be improved in health care".

The Union minister said that the practice of cooperative federalism has enabled his department to share good practices and replicate them. He laid stress on the need to understand the strength, weakness and challenges in the health sector so that the performance can improve further. The minister said that the international community is waiting to see the performance of India in the health sector. He has appealed to the health officials to rise up to the expectation.

On the new ventures of the Health Department, the minister mentioned the efforts towards reduction of non-communicable diseases and the efforts towards establishment of 15,000 health and wellness centres across the country.

Speaking on the occasion, State Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that health is a priority sector for the State Government and it has worked to replicate best practices to unleash better healthcare facilities to the people with special focus on the marginalized section.

Welcoming the delegates to the national summit, Sonowal said that Assam and other north-eastern states have received special focus from Union Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and this provided lots of encouragement to the states to achieve the development goals at a faster pace.

"The State Government accords top priority to health sector and adopted a number of steps to provide better healthcare facilities to the people," he said.

Congratulating Nadda for the successful launch of Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, the Chief Minister further stressed the need for generating more awareness among people on the healthcare schemes being implemented in the country so that they could accrue maximum benefit out of them.

State Health Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that due to sustained efforts of the health department in the state, remarkable progress has been made in healthcare delivery system. He said that MMR, which was 480 in 2006 came down to 236 in 2018 as a result of successful interventions made in the state over the years.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Government of Assam, Principal Secretary of Health Sameer Sinha received the second best performing award in the category of under 5 mortality reduction at the function.