Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda on Friday asserted that it is India's key priority to ensure quality of healthcare in public and private sector.
Speaking at the function for dissemination of 10th Common Review Mission (CRM) report of the National Health Mission, Nadda emphasised on the need for developing necessary sturdy healthcare systems for eliminating diseases like leprosy, malaria, kala-azar, etc.
"Strong healthcare systems are required to be put in place and time-bound and structured disease elimination plans need to be developed," he added.
The Health Minister further said that healthcare service delivery has improved in terms of quality and content of care, as evidenced by increased footfalls, for not just institutional delivery but also for outpatients and inpatients.
"However, in all new challenges and demand we make, innovative strategies and encourage new ideas and innovations and take advantage of them so that nobody is left untouched of our services," he added.
Nadda further stated that several new initiatives have been launched in the last three years and targeted towards expanding access and reducing costs, as the Ministry moves along the path to universal health care.
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Assuring full support to the states, Nadda urged the states to come forward with their proposals for rolling out innovative programmes for delivery of services.
The Health Minister informed that under the universal screening of common NCDs program, everyone above the age of 30 years will be screened in the 100 districts of the country in the first phase.
"Gradually, it will cover the entire country and around 50 crore people will be covered so that timely intervention can reduce the disease burden in the country," he added.
Appreciating the Common Resource Mission (CRM), Nadda said that it's unique, as districts and states not only show case their best practices, but are also forthcoming about their challenges.
"This, I believe, allows us to assert with a degree of confidence that the CRM findings also serve as a tool to evaluate the implementation of the Mission," Nadda said.
Faggan Singh Kulaste and Anupriya Patel, Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare, were also present at the occasion.
Addressing the participants, Faggan Singh Kulatste, Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare) said that National Health Mission (NHM) has led to improved health outcomes and health indicators due to strengthened system of healthcare delivery.
"National Health Mission continues to play an important role in strengthening public health systems at state and sub district levels," Faggan Singh stated.
Speaking at the function, Anupriya Patel, Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), said that CRM is an important mechanism for review of NHM as it helps in conducting intense interaction at the ground for review of processes and quality. She urged the states for developing innovative strategies for universal health coverage and highlighted the key findings of the CRM report.
C. K. Mishra, Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) stated that the inputs of CRM are very important to make the analyses the driving force for improvement of NHM.
CRM provides the platform for critical analyses which is very unique to NHM. It assesses the quality parameters of the programme and gives us details about the returns on the investment. Shri Mishra stressed on the new ideas, out-of-the-box thinking and innovation to keep the momentum going. He urged everybody to introspect, to reassess and reaffirm.
The 10th CRM team visited 16 States/Union Terrorties, including nine High Focus States including three North-Eastern States, five Non- High Focus States and two UTs.
The terms of reference include service delivery; quality assurance; Continuum of Care" for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) +A; human resources; community processes; information and knowledge; healthcare financing; procurement of drugs, diagnostics and supply chain management; National Urban Health Mission (NUHM); and governance and management.
The CRM report spans all aspects of health system reform and uses a mix of methods-including secondary data review, rapid assessment of facilities, and implementer and beneficiary perspectives.
Also present at the function were Dr Jagdish Prasad, Dr Arun Kumar Panda, Additional. Secretary and Mission Director (NHM), Manoj Jhalani, Vandana Gurnani, along with other senior officers of the Ministry and the States/UTs and representatives from donor partners, health experts and NGOs who were part of the CRM.