Govt contemplating to set up medical varsity

Shimla, Aug 13 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh government would consider setting up a separate medical varsity in the state to regulate and cater to the requirements of the upcoming medical colleges and health institutions.

This was revealed by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the review meeting of the Health and Family Welfare Department held here yesterday.

He said health sector was on the priority agenda of the state government and private players were being motivated to set up medical colleges and centres of par excellence in the state to provide internationally recognised medical education and also diagnostic facilities to the people.

Additionally, there was a vast network of about 4,000 health institutions in the state delivering health services to the people near their homes, he added.

Need had emerged to create a separate body in the shape of a Medical University to regulate the functioning and overseeing other requirements of all such institutions so that it could produce professionals in different medical discipline, he quipped.

He said efforts were being made establish green field medical colleges in Mandi, Solan and Hamirpur.

Mr Dhumal said health indicators in the state were among the top states in the country and the network providing coverage to every habitation from a reasonable distance.

Himachal Pradesh happened to be one of the top states where 70 per cent population was dependant for its medical requirements upon the government owned health institutions. Efforts were afoot to upgrade the infrastructure facilities to cater specialised medical services to the people by hiring the services of private practitioners, he said.

He emphasized the need to train the village 'midwifes' with skill upgradation crash courses to ensure safe delivery in the rural homes and consider reasonable incentive to them after getting the verification report from the concerned Gram Panchayat 'Pradhan' and the mother of the new born child, thereby generating self employment to the rural women.

The state government would be envisioning the 'Mahila Swasthya Karya Karta scheme' to cater to the minor medical requirements of the rural population, he informed.

The Chief Minister directed the medical authorities to launch TB eradication programme more effectively, besides monitoring the polio immunisation and other national programmes in the state.

He said the low female sex ratio in the age group of zero to six needed to be addressed seriously, which was very important to maintain the sex ratio amongst the future generations.

People should be awared about the shortfall of the sex imbalances which could create a number of problems in the coming years.

Possibilities are also needed to be explored to carry AIDS tests before the marriage of young people to help them lead a successful and healthy life, Mr Dhumal observed.

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