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Shillong: Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, union minister for Health and Family Welfare virtually inaugurated a “Regional Consultative Workshop on Research Priority for Providing Accessible and Affordable Healthcare for the Northeastern States of India” in Shillong today.
Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, union minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and Dr Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, minister of Health and Family Welfare, government of Meghalaya were also present.
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The two-day workshop is being jointly organized in Shillong by the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India; Indian Institute of Public Health, Shillong and Indian Council of Medical Research – Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh.
Addressing the gathering, Dr Mandaviya said that PM Modi’s dream is to create a healthy India, a developed India, in which every citizen of the country should get quality health facilities on time; health facilities and medicines should become easily affordable, accessible and available; and health facilities should be spread across all geographical areas and have balanced availability.
He said that the effort of the government is on ensuring that everyone gets access to health facilities in an equal manner without any distinction between rich and poor. To achieve this objective, the government has worked with policies and various schemes due to which India has created a health model that gives meaning to the spirit of ‘Sarva Jan Hitay, Sarva Jan Sukhaay’”.
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On the commitment of the union government for the development of the Northeast region, Dr Mandaviya said, “In the last 10 years, efforts have been made to bring it into the mainstream of the country by connecting it with all types of connectivity like Health, Roadways, Railways, I-Ways, Waterways and Ropeways etc. For the first time in the country, the North East region has started to be seen as the growth engine of India. Healthcare today has become accessible and available in this entire region.”
“In the last 10 years, institutions like RIMS (Regional Institute of Medical Sciences), RIPANS (Regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences), NEIGRIHMS (Northeastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences) and Assam AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) have been developed and 23 new medical colleges have been opened in the region. ICMR has also developed various health facilities in the region”, he further said.
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The Union Health Minister informed that “today more than 31 crore people have been given Ayushman card for providing in-hospital treatment under which free family treatment up to Rs 5 lakh is being given annually, 11,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras are open where 50-80 percent cheaper medicines are available, more than 1.64 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have come up, which are considered as the Health Gate Keeper of the people of India and complete Health Surveillance System and One Health Initiative is being implemented from 48 BSL Labs”.
He also highlighted that “more than 22 lakh kidney patients in the country have got free dialysis service, about 6 crore people of the country have received free treatment through PMJAY and out of pocket expenditure of the total health expenditure of the citizens has reduced from 62.6 percent to 47.1 percent.”
During the occasion, the Union Health Minister also inaugurated a Market Place and launched a Master’s Program on Health Economics and Technology Assessment at IIPH, Shillong.
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Union Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar during her interaction with the press said that under the visionary leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi, India has made phenomenal progress in delivering healthcare services to the innermost regions and remote areas of the nation.
She said that the northeastern states have benefitted immensely from innovations and initiatives taken in the health sector, and schemes like Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centers among others are successfully providing primary healthcare services at the grassroot level.
She congratulated ICMR and other stakeholders for successfully hosting the research orientation workshop for the northeast region, the first of its kind, in the beautiful city of Shillong. She expressed her belief that there will be many positive takeaways for the northeastern states at the end of this workshop and through these learnings they will try to make health technologies available, accessible, affordable and equitable in their respective states in the coming times.
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Explaining the purpose of the workshop, Dr Rajiv Bahl, secretary, Department of Health Research and DG, ICMR said, “Through this workshop we want to discuss all the research priorities for the northeast states so that we can start specific research projects for NE”.
He said that prime minister Narendra Modi’s focus on research and innovation is exemplified by the fact that he has added the term Jai Anusandhan to the ever popular slogans Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan.
He added, “The prime minister is giving extreme importance to innovation and research and I also have the opinion that we cannot become Viksit Bharat without becoming a powerhouse in research, but we also believe that research is to solve the problems of the people, and therefore we have to discuss the problems that the North Eastern states, the National Health Missions in the states are struggling with. So we want to identify those priorities and start projects on those priorities.”
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Dr Bahl said that another objective of the workshop is to make affordable health technology available to the state. “We should use the resources in the most judicious way and we should get them at the lowest cost and make them affordable to the people of India. Which will only be possible through products that are developed and made in India,” he added.
Dr Bahl said that the workshop will discuss in detail the concept and domains of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), recent advancements in the field, and its role in policy making in the healthcare sector.
Anu Nagar, Joint Secretary, Department of Health Research; Shri Sampath Kumar, principal Health Secretary, Meghalaya and senior officials of the union Government and the government of Meghalaya were present on the occasion.
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