NELLORE: The Commissioner of Family Welfare C.B.S. Venkataramana has appealed to the medical fraternity and people to make the second phase of Reproductive Child Health (RCH) scheme a success during its five-year implementation period.

Addressing district medical officers and other health staff belonging to various departments in connection with the district level workshop, at the Golden Jubilee Hall, here on Tuesday, the Commissioner recalled the first phase of RCH which was implemented during 1999-2004 in an intensive manner in Ranga Reddy and Mahabubnagar districts, when urban health centres were set up, village delivery centres constructed and 1,400 village health workers placed.

According to him, on a less intensive scale, 470 round-the-clock mother and child health centres were operational in selected primary health centres (PHCs) in the rural and interior areas of the State. The RCH-II was launched in April this year.

Mr. Venkataramana said that RCH-II was planned to recruit 55,400 women health volunteers (WHVs) in all the habitations of 22,000 gram panchayats to act as preventive healthcare resource persons of first resort in all maternal and child health matters.

Remuneration

The monthly remuneration for WHVs is Rs. 300. Other important interventions of RCH-II include an emergency transport scheme having a network of rural ambulances, life-saving healthcare services within a distance of 50 to 60 km from the farthest village in any district, half-yearly gram panchayat level sensitisation workshops and performance rewards for gram panchayats.

It also includes institutional care for one month for low weight babies, basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care centres, blood banks and blood storage centres, hiring of private specialists, contracting private hospital services, training for medical officers, free travel by public transportation for pregnant women and adolescent health counsellors.

In addition, it is proposed to take up mobile delivery services by trained nurses through voluntary organisations in remote and unserved areas.

The Commissioner said that funds for the project would be received at the State- level and distributed to districts as per their achievements after verifications. The district Collector M. Ravichandra and other senior officers were present.

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