News Analysis India

Tag: Bihar healthcare

  • Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar to host ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ on October 3

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In the NITI Aayog report of the Indian Public Health Standards -2012 that was brought in the public domain with findings of 15 states in the country, including Jharkhand, Bihar ranked the worst 

    With only 6 beds per 1 lakh population in Bihar’s district hospitals, the state was placed at the bottom of the ranking report of the NITI Aayog .

    The findings of NITI Aayog has intensified the political pressure against the ruling NDA government by the opposition.

    Taking this issue to the public domain, opposition party leader Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, for the first time in his entire political career, is set to host a program called ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ on October 3 in Patna.

    ‘Doctors’ Dialogue with Tejashwi’ is aimed to make a detailed blueprint for revamping healthcare whenever his party comes in power.

    Aimed at knowing the problems and causes behind the status of state so far on public health standards, Tejashwi will interact with the people of the medical fraternity and other experts on healthcare through the program.

    Taunting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the release of the NITI Aayog report, Yadav said, “Congratulation to CM Nitish Kumar ji for making Bihar number one from the bottom!”

    But the BJP rejected the report of NITI Aayog saying the Aayog has always shown a preoccupied thought about Bihar.

    What came as a shock for Bihar is that its neighbouring state Jharkhand was placed above it, in terms of beds available per 1 lakh.  As per the report, Jharkhand has 9 beds in district hospitals per 1 lakh population.

    Among the 15 states, MP and Chhatisgarh have topped with 20 beds in their district hospitals per 1 lakh population.

    “Bihar which has elected 39 MPs out of 40 by the NDA and has doubled the engine government but the state is at the worst-with 6 beds per 1 lakh! Shameful to the state health minister, who runs away whenever he is asked to reply over this”, Tejashwi Yadav taunted on Friday.

    He said: “I would interact with the medical fraternity of Bihar and other healthcare experts to have a ground-based real sense of difficulties that medical practitioners and medicos also have to face in the state and how medical infrastructures and facilities can be improved to the level of easy accessibility with all facilities to the people”.

    Meanwhile, health minister Mangal Pandey after coming under fire by the opposition over the NITI Aayog report, said that health services in the state are identified by quality, with the quality of government hospitals and other health institutions improved. But Pandey didn’t say anything on the report of NITI Aayog directly and avoided the media queries.

    But a senior leader of BJP and MLA from Barh Gyanendra Singh Gyanu questioned the report of NITI Aayog and said that the Aayog has always shown its negative and preoccupied impression about Bihar. He said that status shown in the report was the status around 15 years ago during the rule of the Lalu-Rabri regime in the state.

  • ‘E-Sanjeevani, Ashwini portal’: Bihar government launches technology-based health care services

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Bihar on Sunday took a leap in providing health care facilities including telemedicine and other digital health care platforms as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugrated the services of E-Sanjeevani, Ashwini portal, the Wonder-App and the Referral Transport Tracking system at a function organised by the state health department.

    “Ensuring better healthcare facility to the people of the state is our prime concern and we have been working on it since came into power in the state. The technology based health services started here today will go a long way in providing good health care facilities to the people,” Kumar said after stating the services.

    A Memorandum of Understating (MoU) was also signed in th presence of Nitish and CEO of the Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS) alias JEEVIKA, Bala Murgan D and executive director of health services Manoj Kumar for running the first of its kind kitchen called ‘Didi Ki Rasoi’ in every government hospitals to provide free foods to admitted patients and their attendants at cheaper rates.

    Speaking at the occasion, the chief minister, quoting a figure, said that before NDA came into power, only 39 patients were availing a public health centre per month but now, on an average, 11,500 patients turn up per month for getting health care services at PHCs in Bihar.

    “Acting on the findings of a survey which showed that poor families in Bihar have to spend a large amount of their hard earned money on health-related problems, the state government has now started converting PHCs into community health centres with a capacity of 30 beds each,” he said.

    “The new technology-based medical services are being made available and hospital buildings have been renovated along with many new ones built. Under the ‘Seven Resolves Part-II’ mission for making ‘Aatmanirbhar Bihar’, all health centres will be linked with sub-divisional and district hospitals by providing all medical facilities,” he said.

    He hoped that the telemedicine services, Wonder APP and other digital platforms like the Ashwani portal and others will help people in the age of digital technology to get healthcare services swiftly.

    Appreciating the move of providing free food to in-house patients at hospitals from the ‘Didi Ki Rasoi’ initiative, he said that Bihar is the first state in the country with 1.20 crore families associated with over 10 lakh SHGs running under the JEEVIKA care and command.

    The kitchen service by SHGs had started on a pilot basis in seven districts – Buxar, Vaishali, Sheohar, Saharsa, Gaya, Shekhpura and Purnia – by the women associated with the SHGs. Today, this service has been extended in all hospitals of the state for free of cost to in-house patients on behalf of the government.

    The MoU has been signed by the health department with the BRLPS for next 5 years and the government will pay Rs 150 per plate Rs 150 to in-house patient. He also said that treatment to the patients through telemedicine at 1724 health centres in 38 districts of state has started.

    Meanwhile, Principal Secretary (Health) Pratyay Amrit, who has brought a drastic change in health sector, said that the emergency ‘102 Ambulance Bihar’ app and the Ashwini portal among other services have been started by CM Nitish Kumar.