The Rs 3,364-crore project implementation plan of the National Health Mission (NHM) will be approved at a meeting in the city between health officials across the state that will end Friday.
The focus will be on four core areas and adequate funding will be set aside to tackle non-communicable diseases, address the issue of shortage of doctors, complete the construction of health centres, buildings and also step up 108 emergency medical services.
Dr Satish Pawar, additional director of the National Health Mission, Maharashtra, who is in Pune to attend the five-day meeting, said old guidelines on how to implement health-related schemes will be updated to make them user-friendly. By mid-April, the operational guidelines of the NHM’s project implementation plan will be ready, he added.
For instance, specific guidelines will be issued to check whether rules and regulations are being followed while procuring and purchasing medicines, medical equipment and consumables. Health teams are being trained to take up prevention of NCD, TB and a major part of the funding will be allocated towards construction work of health centres and hospital buildings.
Among the initiatives would be stepping up the preparedness to identify and prevent non-communicable diseases, like when a central team visited the Pune Zilla Parishad-run primary health centre at Maan to check the facilities.
At Pune Zilla Parishad, approximately a total of 2,860 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers are being trained in identifying people at risk from non-communicable diseases.
Dr Dilip Mane, district health officer, Pune, said the ASHA workers will be given a kit that includes apron, haemoglobin metre, BP apparatus machine, glucometer, torch and measuring tape. The kit will help them check for oral cancer, hypertension, diabetes and body mass index. There is one ASHA worker per 1,000 population, and they will be visiting people at their doorstep. “We hope to start the programme soon and cover a population of 40 lakh in Pune district,” added Dr Mane.
