Medical & Health Department heading for trifurcation
‘Decision taken for administrative convenience and better healthcare delivery’
Six Regional Directorates of Family Welfare to be scrappedThe three departments will be integrated at the Secretariat level
HYDERABAD: The Medical & Health Department is in for trifurcation as there are three Ministers handling the Health portfolio, often resulting in confusion between them over their respective jurisdiction.
According to the proposals, Sambani Chandrasekhar, Minister for Health & Family Welfare, will exclusively look after rural health and disease control. All primary health centres will function under him. Galla Aruna, another Minister, will take care of Medical Education & Health Insurance Scheme besides Rajiv Arogyasri. The Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, together with its various hospitals at area and district levels, will be looked after by Vanama Venkateswara Rao, the Minister for Vaidya Vidhana Parishad & Hospital Services.
Confirming plans to trifurcate the department, P. K. Agarwal, Principal Secretary, Health and Medical, told reporters here on Friday that the Government had taken this decision for administrative convenience and improve healthcare delivery system without, however, disturbing due promotions to employees. If necessary, new posts of various cadres would be created. “But we will go ahead with the implementation only after consulting employees’ unions. We called them for discussions.”
Mr. Agarwal said the six Regional Directorates of Family Welfare would be scrapped and instead, the post of Director, Health, would be strengthened. Similarly, there would a separate director to look after service matters of employees in each department.
No confusion
Confusion arose now as doctors were functioning under one directorate and para-medical staff like nurses under another. This would be removed under trifurcation.
Nevertheless, the three departments would be integrated at the Secretariat level headed by a principal secretary. Each department would have a separate secretary.
Rs 320-cr DFID grant for health sector in AP
The programme envisages development of participatory and convergent district plans for need-based resource allocations.
Hyderabad, Dec. 10 The Department for International Development (DFID), the international financial assistance agency of the UK, has sanctioned a grant of Rs 320 crore for Andhra Pradesh to identify and plug gaps in health delivery systems in the State.
Besides strengthening delivery mechanism of essential health care for the poor, the Andhra Pradesh Health Sector Reform Programme is aimed at improving health sector governance and management.
DFID and the State Government have agreed upon a set of milestones for deploying the funds.
In the first tranche, the State will get Rs 75 crore this financial year.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr Sambani Chandra Sekhar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, said the funds would be utilised for a variety of services, including forging public-private partnerships.
The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, will formally launch the reform programme on Tuesday.
DFID will deploy a consulting agency to advice the State on technical issues. The programme will be reviewed after one year.
The programme envisages development of participatory and convergent district plans for need-based resource allocations. It will also improve infrastructure and human resources availability in tribal, remote and underserved areas.
Mr Anil C. Punetha, Commissioner for Family Welfare, will act as Chief Executive Officer of the programme.
Recruitment
On recruitment to primary health centres, the Minister said the Government would send recruitment orders to 1,360 doctors in various categories this week.
Admitting that several people were succumbing to fevers in tribal areas, he said about 150 died this calendar year in Adilabad district due to different fevers and diseases. Last year, the death toll under this count was put at 156.
Monday, 14 July 2008.
Health Tips on Toll-Free ’104′ Soon
HYDERABAD: Health minister Sambani Chandra Sekhar on Friday said the government would launch a toll-free number ’104′ soon to provide health tips.
Speaking at the ‘World Population Day’ programme here, the minister said the government had also decided to conduct health check ups in rural areas once every month. A special medical camp would be held at a village located at a distance of three kilometer from the primary health centre (PHC).
He also said that government had decided to appoint 600 doctors in rural areas in addition to the existing 3,000 doctors. A notification would be issued soon in this regard. The government would deploy a ’108 ambulance’ at each mandal. For this purpose, 150 more ambulances would be acquired soon. He claimed that A P was one of the top states in the country in conducting family planning operations. During the last 10 years, about 78 lakh family planning operations were conducted in the state.
(c) 2008 The Times of India. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Release of ICRW-BPWT Stigma and Gender-based Violence Reduction Toolkit
The Hon. Minister for Health, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Sri. Chandra Sekhar Sambani released a toolkit for healthcare providers, Reducing HIV Stigma and Gender-based Violence, developed by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in partnership with Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust (BPWT) at a dissemination meeting held 20th September 2007 in Hyderabad.
In his address, the Honourable Minister assured the audience of the government’s commitment to initiatives to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic and hoped that the toolkit would be replicated, adapted and used in statewide programs. He extended his support to scale up efforts.
Sri Ashok Kumar, IAS, Project Director APSACS, was also present. He described various innovative efforts that the state of Andhra Pradesh already has made to address the issues of stigma and promote an environment of openness. He particularly emphasised the Bold Doctor initiative and pointed out that in a short time, there has been a massive uptake of integrated testing and counselling centres and ART services in the state. He underscored the importance of the ICRW toolkit as a crucial resource in these efforts.
ICRW Asia Regional Office Director Dr. Ravi Verma highlighted the need to integrate such frontline healthcare providers as AYUSH in HIV-prevention efforts and said that he hoped participating organisations and APSACS would be able to scale up these efforts. Dr. Nata Duvvury, Director of ICRW’s Gender and Violence work, also presented an overview of findings from the evaluation of the toolkit’s effect on people’s attitudes and behaviours. Ms. Nandini Prasad, Project Director, provided an overview of the toolkit and its objectives. The dissemination meeting also included a skills-building session
– led by Dr. Ross Kidd – with participants, including healthcare providers, representatives from positive networks, community organisations, and bilateral and donor agencies.
The Stigma and Gender-based Violence Reduction toolkit has been developed and tested through the Reducing Stigma and Violence Toolkit for Health (SVTH) project, which ICRW and Borukha Public Welfare Trust conducted in Andhra Pradesh from 2005-2007. A series of exercises included in the toolkit have been developed through an intensive participatory process, involving frontline health care providers that included, registered medical practitioners (RMPs) and traditional birth attendants (TBAs). The toolkit is a collection of participatory educational exercises organized around five major themes on HIV stigma: gender-based violence, shame and blame, more understanding, less fear, and moving to action. The full set of modules is not meant to be used as a complete package in a single course; the exercises are meant to be used selectively.
The development of the tool kit has been supported by Levi Strauss Foundation.
For details on the ICRW toolkit, please contact Nata Duvvury at Nduvury@icrw.org or visit out Web site at
