Srinagar, Oct 21 (KNS): The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting to review the flagship schemes of the Health & Medical Education and Social Welfare departments.

Financial Commissioner (ACS), Health & Medical Education Department, Administrative Secretary, Social Welfare Department along with Mission Director National Health Mission and concerned Sectoral Heads participated in the meeting.

It was informed that around 16 lakh beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) and nearly 38 lakh beneficiaries under AB-PMJAY-SEHAT Schemes have been given golden cards.

It was further informed that 239 hospitals have been empanelled by the Government for providing free of cost and cashless health cover to the beneficiaries. To boost enrollment under both the schemes, a special Gaon Gaon Ayushman campaign has been launched by the Department.

While terming the AB-PMJAY/AB-PMJAY-SEHAT an attractive insurance product, the Chief Secretary advised the department to ensure 100% coverage under these schemes by issuing golden cards to all the households in Jammu and Kashmir.

While emphasizing the availability of affordable and quality generic medicines across all the health care institutions in the Union territory as an important public health objective, the Chief Secretary directed the opening up of Jan Aushadhi Kendras in all 3500 government hospitals in a time bound manner by utilizing the services of existing pharmacists in the government health sector.

“Special emphasis must be given to promote awareness on the prices, availability and quality of generic medicines through dedicated IEC campaigns”, Dr Mehta added.

The Chief Secretary further directed the department to open 1000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras before March, 2022 through respective Block Medical Officers.

“It is important that our health care facilities meet the national quality benchmarks.,” Dr Mehta observed.

He directed the department to strive towards achieving NQAP accreditation of all premier hospitals in J&K.

The Chief Secretary also directed the department to upscale School Health Program in all the districts of the Union territory in association with the School Education department to train school teachers as health ambassadors aimed at safeguarding both the physical and mental health of school-going children.

To ensure the smooth functioning of Health Helpline Number –‘104’, the Health Department was asked to launch intensive IEC campaigns to educate people about the outreach facility, besides strengthening the ambulance fleet to reduce the response time in cases of medical emergencies.

Dr Mehta also underscored the need to promote tele-consultations and periodic screening for non-communicable diseases for early detection and timely expert medical intervention in cases of serious/life-consuming diseases.

The Chief Secretary also enjoined upon the department to do comparative analysis with other States/UTs as regards the performance vis-a-vis the health indicators like NMR, IMR and MMR, besides taking measures to ascertain whether the desired outcomes under schemes like JSY, JSSK, SUMAN and PMSMA have been achieved.

“J&K needs to be amongst the first five States/UTs on all health indicators as well as in regard to the implementation of NHM in the country”, Dr Mehta advised.

The department was also advised to speed up the implementation of the National Digital Health Mission in J&K and endeavour towards becoming a top ranker in the implementation of the Scheme in the country.

While reviewing the flagship schemes of the Social welfare Department, it was informed that the department has achieved the enrolment targets under the PMMVJ during the years 2019-20 and 2020-21.

It was further informed that in the current financial year, the department has provided benefit to 26348 beneficiaries against an annual target of 58000.The department further informed that all the enrolled beneficiaries shall be covered under the Scheme by the end of the financial year.

While stating that the enrolment target should not be fixed arbitrarily, the Chief Secretary directed the department to ascertain the number of first pregnancies in the UT in conjunction with Health and Medical Education department so that all such women are targeted under the Scheme.

Under Poshan Abhiyaan, it was informed that growth monitoring devices have been given to all the Anganwari Centres and that Anganwari Workers have started measuring weight and height of all the children on their watch and also started uploading the same on the Poshan Tracker.

It was further informed that while 90 % Anganwari Centres will have Poshan Vatikas by October end, the department will saturate all the Anganwari Centres with Poshan Vatikas by middle of November.

The Chief Secretary directed the department to expeditiously achieve end to end digitization of all schemes for better outcomes, besides advising to ascertain the state of malnutrition amongst the children and adults in UT of J&K so that the same is effectively addressed. (KNS)