Nadda reviews health facilities in Northeast states

Guwahati: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda Saturday reviewed health facilities in the north eastern states here, asserting that there is no shortage of funds for ensuring health care services in the region.

He urged the state governments to accord priority to advance preparedness for dealing with dengue, malaria and other vector borne diseases and effectively manage these with the onset of monsoon, said a government statement.

Health Ministers and Secretaries of the eight north eastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim -- participated in the review meeting.

He urged the states for "optimum use" of resources that are being provided by the Centre.

Asserting that there is no shortage of fund for ensuring health care services, Nadda urged the states to submit utilisation reports in time for streamlining the flow of funds.

He said procurement should be transparent and need based for ensuring quality and regular supply.

Nadda said a regional resource centre for Northeast will be developed for building capacities of the states for programme implementation, laying importance on public health programme, strengthening of information, education and communication and ensuring quality assurance.

He also said a joint secretary from his Ministry will visit North Eastern states once in a month to oversee implementation of programmes and address the bottlenecks.

Nadda also suggested strengthening of district hospitals and sub-divisional civil hospitals with rational deployment of doctors and paramedical staff.

He also stressed on the need to develop public health planning with quality training of paramedics.