Dr Sanjeev Kumar, commissioner of Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Maharashtra, said that in order to cut the overall out of pocket expenditure on health, the taluka level government hospital should be strengthened like the district level hospitals.
Speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of three day conference, ‘MahaPedicon’, by Indian Academy of Pediatrics Maharashtra State in Pune, Kumar highlighted that Maharashtra ranks first with respect to out of pocket expenditure.
He also mentioned that in the upcoming week, the state government will be publishing an advertisement inviting private gynaecologist and paediatricians to start working with taluka level facility. He underlined the need to improve the existing government interventions, in order to achieve the targets.
While speaking about the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) he informed that they have reduced as compared to earlier. “The situation has improved because of the national health mission. The efforts were combined with the government initiatives and with private set-up,” said Kumar.
According to Kumar, gynaecologists and paediatricians should work with the state machinery on remuneration basis, in order to provide better health care delivery.
“Around 4,500 deliveries take place every year in a block. Out of which, 600 are C-sections, which take place every year. We aim to provide facility where this C-section can be done at hospitals with the help of partnership at taluka levels,” said Kumar.
He added, “Services at PHC and sub-centres are good. But services at taluka level are not good. We cannot have situations where C-section is not available at the block level. Maharashtra has almost 70 per cent good infrastructure where people can visit taluka level hospital by road within 30 minutes. Hence, the challenge is to update hospitals which can be provided with good quality partnership with practitioners at taluka level.”