New Delhi: Acknowledging the deficiency in human resources as a constraint in implementation of the NRHM, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said improvement in road connectivity, electricity and education had an impact in improving health care accessibility in the underserved areas.
Releasing the first report of the National Rural
Health Mission for 2008-09, based on the web-enabled Health
Management Information System, he said, considerable progress
had been made in these sectors also during the UPA regime.
Azad agreed that developing managerial capacities at
the District and Sub-district level was a challenge which the
Mission was faced with, and also agreed to explore the
possibilities of partnership with IAP in developing model
districts across the country.
"The world has a lot to learn from India`s experience
in developing public health systems," Professor Jeffrey Sachs
said in the sixth meeting of the International Advisory Panel
of the National Rural Health Mission held recently here.
Sachs, a member of the advisory board of the NRHM,
also felt that India can emerge as global hub for training of
health professionals through institutions like Public Health
Foundation of India (PHFI).
He, however, expressed the need for scaling up public
health expenditure from the current 1.4 per cent of GDP to at
least 5-6 per cent of GDP which according to him was a huge
challenge and advocated the need for more community health
workers in addition to ASHAs and professional management of
the health system.
Bureau Report
