The Hindu : New Delhi News : New medical facilities for M.P.

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Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
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New medical facilities for M.P.

Lalit Shastri

C.M. says 1.06 lakh women were given the benefit of Janani Suraksha Yojana till March-end
Under the scheme, pregnant women from rural areas get Rs.1,400 on institutional delivery

SHIVPURI (M.P.): A health revolution is in the offing in Guna and Shivpuri where the District Health Societies are trying to put the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) vision into practice. They are working together with the State Government and the UNICEF to create a model for “continuum care from community to hospitals”– now commonly known as the “Guna model.”

Until now there was neither a proper mechanism to build up the frontline health workers’ capacity to enable them to identify, track and treat sick children in the community nor a suitable place where sick newborns can be taken care of within the district.

Shivpuri gets SNCU

An important link in the chain of facilities being strengthened to meet the NRHM vision is the state-of-the-art Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU). One such unit, the second of its kind in the government set-up in Central India, started functioning at the Shivpuri District Hospital on July 2.

State Health Minister Gauri Shankar Shejwar, who inspected the Shivpuri district hospital this past weekend, took a close look at the newly set-up unit and appreciated the need for a fully-equipped referral facility to save critically sick and underweight infants.

After closely watching many newborns virtually being revived to life with the help of life-saving equipment, proper medication and trained medical staff, Dr. Shejwar told media persons: “The SNCU set up with the help of UNICEF is running smoothly.” He expressed hope that adequate resources would be available to ensure that the SNCU meets its objectives on a long-term basis.

A team of four paediatricians and 12 staff nurses provide round-the-clock services at the Shivpuri SNCU which meets global standards. UNICEF has supported its establishment cost while the State Government would be funding the human resource deployment and operational costs under NRHM.

The first SNCU was established and made operational at the Guna District Hospital in December 2007. The need of the facility-based SNCU was felt due to an increasing number of institutional deliveries with the implementation of the Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY) to reduce the overall maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate by increasing institutional deliveries from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

A Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Programme document gives stark pointers. It states “in Madhya Pradesh 28 children were dying every hour; about half of child deaths occur in the neo-natal period (28 days); two-thirds of these deaths could be readily averted by existing preventive and therapeutic interventions.”

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is emphatic in underlining the need for concerted steps to reduce maternal and infant mortality. He told The Hindu that more than 1.06 lakh women had been extended the benefit of Janani Suraksha Yojana till March-end this year. Under the scheme, a pregnant woman from the rural area is given Rs.1,400 for institutional delivery.

The State UNICEF office has been supporting the Guna district under the Border District Cluster Strategy (BDCS) and later through an integrated approach determined to realign its support to the district in consonance with the Integrated District Action Plan under the aegis of NRHM and RCH-II.

The sex ratio in Guna district is 877:1000 – much less than the state and national figures of 919 and 933 respectively. A majority of the district’s population (76 per cent) lives in rural areas. In the district, about 45 per cent of the families living in the rural areas are below poverty line, which is higher than both the national average(28.6 per cent) and the State average(37.43 per cent).

The Guna model

The Guna model, initiated by UNICEF along with the State Health Department and district authorities, has the potential to revolutionise the public health system aimed at addressing the problem of Maternal and Infant mortality. The NRHM project implementation plan (PIP) for 2008 proposes to scale up SNCUs in 18 Madhya Pradesh districts.

The UNICEF State Representative, Hamid-el Bashir, said: “Our hope is to support the replication of the Guna model in all 50 districts in the next 2-3 years in order to reduce the infant mortality rate (IMR) from 74 per 1000 to 40 per 1000.”

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