Chandrababu Naidu district lags in some healthcare services

Tirupati: Though doubts are being raised on the criteria being followed in ranking each district under different government health schemes, the District Medical and Health department has to go a long way to improve various health services to the public. 

Going by the indicators in the monthly health bulletins being released by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the fourth of every month, Chittoor district has been lagging in many areas when compared to others.

The Chief Minister has been releasing health bulletins district wise for the last two months along with the state bulletin, which reveals the performance of each district in the delivery of various services.

The idea was to extend these bulletins constituency wise and mandal wise in due course. These bulletins are aimed at providing better health care to the public in the government sector under various schemes. Taking six months average performance, rankings will be given to each district under each scheme.

According to the health bulletin released in April, Chittoor secured second place in free dialysis programme, in third position in ‘Chandranna Sanchara Chikitsa’ and ‘NTR Vaidya Seva’. In Reproductive Child Health and NTR Vaidya Parikhsa (Lab) the district occupied fifth place while in eUPHC (Tele health services) it got sixth place.

In sanitation segment also the district recorded poor performance by getting 9th place whereas in schemes like Talli Bidda Express (10), 108 services (11), NTR Vaidya Pariksha tele radiology (11) and Mahila Master Health Check-up (12)  the district has been placed behind many other districts. 

However, some of these segments come under the purview of DM&HO and some under District Coordinator of Hospital Services (DCHS) while there are a few which fall under public private partnership like 104 & 108 services. All the data being uploaded online by sections concerned to the Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, which was being used for the ranking purpose by a private agency. 

There is no clarity in the department on what criteria is being followed by the private agency in giving rankings under various services. Still, keeping in view the positions, the district medical and health officer has organised a review meeting to prepare an action plan to improve district position in several fields on the next day of releasing the April bulletin.

District Joint Collector PS Girisha who released the bulletin in Chittoor on April 4 also reviewed the performance with the officials of the medical and health department. He suggested to them to take all steps to improve rankings in all fields and directed district programme officers and additional DMHOs to make field visits frequently to supervise health services.  

DM&HO Dr S Vijaya Gowri while admitting that there were some drawbacks said that they will overcome them. She told The Hans India, that they are reviewing each aspect meticulously to take corrective steps. After change of management 108 services now the position has been improving.

“We will also take the feedback of other districts in which they have fared well and will organise another review meeting later this week,” she asserted. 

By V Pradeep Kumar