Vijayawada: Major reforms brought health services closer to people

Vijayawada: Medical and health principal secretary M T Krishna Babu said Andhra Pradesh has stood in top place in terms of providing quality health services to the people and added that due to revolutionary reforms in the medical sector, the people were getting medical services at their doorsteps across the state.

Krishna Babu inaugurated the 'Care Companion' training programme here on Wednesday. The programme is intended to train staff nurses and other medical staff in mother and child health care and to prevent malnutrition among mother and child.

Speaking on the occasion, the principal secretary informed that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) in the state were low compared to the country's average. While the state registered 35 per cent maternal deaths, the national average rate was 45per cent. Similarly, the infant mortality was 30 per cent in the state, while the country's rate was 35 per cent. (Usually, the maternal mortality rate refers to the number of maternal deaths for every one lakh live births. Infant mortality rate refers to the number of deaths of infants or children below the age of one year per 1,000 live births)

He said all maternal health indicators should be reduced, to achieve these objectives of a healthy population, which can be achieved by improving the health of mothers and newborns, he added.

Under this concept, over 10,000 health assistants would be imparted training. "The CCP (Care Campaign Programme) is a simple yet effective programme that broadly impacts health systems, providers, and patients. The training targets not only the mothers, but also fathers, grandmothers and other relatives as they are key influencers of health behaviors. CCP will be implemented in 260 government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, and a community-level CCP will be implemented with MLHPs. Nearly 40 per cent of people are on a critical edge and don't have basic knowledge of immediate first aid and stabilisation care," he explained.

As part of this companion programme, training will be provided to staff nurses and counsellors from various healthcare facilities such as tribal hospitals, area hospitals, district hospitals and community health centres. The trained personnel will train the family and caregivers in various basic aspects of health, creating awareness among the patients' family caregivers, so that mothers and families are aware of the maternal and child health complications.

This will contribute to the improvement of maternal and child health and the reduction of MMR and IMR, the principal secretary informed. Medical and health department commissioner J Nivas, Noora Health India director Dr Seema Murthy and others attended.