Hyderabad: DMHOs told to spend a night in PHCs to acquaint with services

Hyderabad: Health Minister Harish Rao held a monthly review of the department with DMHOs, programme officers, medical officers, supervisory personnel through tele-conference here on Sunday and asked the district health officers to stay a night in the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) once in a month to check the medical services being provided to the patients.

He reviewed the NCD screening, C-section rate in government and private hospitals, ANC registrations, facilities provided to pregnant women, OT, TB, T-Diagnostics, IHIP and other services.

The minister said that PHCs have a big role in saving the lives of patients. Diseases can be identified in the primary stage and given proper treatment to ensure it does not turn into a prolonged ailment. "District medical officers should spend one night in the PHCs once a month to know the situation at local level and quickly respond. I will also stay a night in the hospital and know the facilities," said Harish Rao.

The minister said that as per the latest Central government's sample registration system, the infant mortality rate in the country decreased from 39 percent during 2014 to 28 percent presently. He attributed this fete to the increasing deliveries in government hospitals, KCR kits, Arogyalakshmi, 102 Vehicle services and maternity services in remote areas. Giving details of the mortality rates, the minister said, the MMR was down from 92 percent to 56 percent, NMR from 25 to 16 per cent, institutional deliveries increased from 91-98 and deliveries in government hospitals from 30 to 56.

Stating that the State was third in the country in terms of providing quality health services by the extraordinary contribution of the doctors, the minister said there was a scope for improvement as the State should reach on top.

He stressed on the need to decrease the caesareans in the hospitals. He said that the government has identified that in 210 sub centers in the State over 70 percent deliveries were going on in the private hospitals, which is leading to more number of caesareans. The government is taking this issue seriously since the last three months.

Harish said that the role of some sub centers is pathetic, which should be changed within a month. He asked the doctors to check private hospitals which practiced caesareans against rules and complain to the Medical Council. The minister asked the officials to upload all the information in the hospitals in the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP).