The Foundation Stone of Doon Medical College at Dehradun laid and launched National Ambulance Service

Shri Azad today launched a fleet of 220 Ambulances under National Ambulance Service of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). He expressed hope that this initiative will lend strength to referral and emergency transport facility in the State. He said that 13 Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) have also been funded under NRHM in the State. The Minister highlighted that NRHM has injected about 18000 ambulances into the health system of the country with the aim of expanding the referral and emergency transport services.

Speaking at the occasion, Shri Azad said that the aim of the Government is to upgrade and strengthen healthcare systems at all levels across the country to achieve the objective of providing accessible, equitable and affordable health care services to the people. He said that so far more than Rs. 96,000 crores have been released to the States under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and about 54000 new constructions or renovations of public health facilities have been taken up in the country.

The Minister said that interventions and strategies introduced under NRHM have started showing discernible results and the health indicators are improving consistently. Referring to two significant interventions to improve maternal & child health, Shri Azad said that the Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY) and the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) have increased the number of pregnant women availing the health facilities. The Minister noted that these services are being made more comprehensive and efficacious to provide best care to the beneficiaries.

Shri Azad said that in view of the growing incidence of Cancer in the country, the Union Cabinet has recently approved Cancer Programme worth Rs. 4750 crores which aims to set up 20 State Cancer Institutes and 50 Tertiary Cancer Centers. He announced the setting up of one State Cancer Institute (SCI) at Government Medical College, Haldwani and one Tertiary Cancer Centre (TCC) at Himalayan Institute Medical Sciences, Dehradun.

“Augmentation of human resources is one of cornerstones of our policy and many path breaking initiatives have been taken during the last four years in this direction” highlighted the Minister. He expressed his satisfaction from the fact that these initiatives have led to phenomenal increase in the medical seats.

Shri Azad stated that MBBS and Post Graduate seats have been increased by 18,412 and 10,093 respectively which marks an increase of 76% and 55% respectively and that 97 new medical colleges have been set up during this period in the country, thus taking the number from 290 to 387. Explaining the importance of Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK), he said that this unique initiative can lay the foundations of a healthy nation as it signals a leap towards universal health coverage.

The Health Minister said that existing school health program was too weak and under-funded to realize the goal of securing the health of children and this prompted the Health Ministry to come up with a comprehensive and broad-based programme, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram (RBSK).The programme aims to screen 27 crore children up to the age of 18 years across the country for 4 Ds i.e Diseases and disabilities, defects and disorders.

Shri Azad said that all expenses on the treatment and management of specified medical conditions of screened children, up to the tertiary level, will be borne by Union Health Ministry under NRHM. He exuded confidence that this will lead to improvement in the quality of life enabling all persons to realize their full potential.

Shri Azad also called upon the State Government to consolidate the gains that have accrued so far and make concerted effort to bring down IMR and MMR.

Present at the occasion were Shri Vijay Bahuguna , the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Shri Harish Rawat, the Union Minister for Water Resources, Shri Surinder Singh Negi, Health Minister of Uttarakhand, MPs and other senior leaders of Uttarakhand. CCI Newswire