Madhya Pradesh has always been at the bottom of the heap in all the health indices. Things are marginally better in Indore district, but they are bleak in the remaining seven districts of Indore division, which has vast swathes of tribal population.
As 2015 draws to a close, the health department has its task cut out for the new year.
In the long term, the department should ensure that the overall health of people improves and that there is a reduction in both maternal maternity rate and infant mortality rate.
The government should also keep a check on malnutrition and easily avoidable communicable diseases.
In the short term, the state government faces a tough task to ensure that the Barwani botched-up cataract operation camp, in which 60 people lost their vision, does not repeat.
The other is to contain outbreak of swine flu in which 140 lost their lives.
“The Barwani incident was a learning experience for us. Several government hospitals and district health centres are struggling to cope with the influx of huge number of patients with their limited number of doctors and poor infrastructure. We plan to change it and this change will begin with Indore district,” said Dr Sharad Pandit, joint director of health.
“The 100-bed district hospital will now get upgraded to 300 beds. A similar approach will be followed with government-run PC Sethi hospital which will now have 100 beds,” he said.
In 2016, the joint director of health said, the major focus would be to tackle growing cases of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
Dr Pandit said a separate cell for communicable diseases like malaria, TB has already been set up with the institution of Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).
Among the eight districts of Indore division, hospitals in three districts — Jhabua, Alirajpur and Barwani which have been bunched together as High Priority Districts (HPD) – need special care for development. These districts have poor institutional delivery rate.
“The percentage of institutional deliveries here is 40% compared to the state figure of 65%. Also, the full immunisation rate here is overall 40%, this is again low when compared to the state figure of 63.4%,” said Dr Pandit.
In the city, efforts will be made to complete the Kayakalp of the MY Hospital and also kick-start the work for a dialysis centre at Khajrana and a trauma centre.
ISSUES & EVENTS THAT MADE HEADLINES IN 2015
January
Spread of H1N1 flu: After the first case of H1N1 flu for 2015 was reported in January, the city registered more than 500 cases, with 140 deaths in Indore alone, till May.
November
First green corridor for organ harvesting in central India: Two green corridors were created simultaneously with the help of Indore police, district administration and health department, a major landmark in the district’s history of organ donation. The entire event was carried out on November 8 when the family of a 59-year-old man decided to donate his body to the Indore organ donation society. The liver was flown from Indore to Gurgaon to carry out a liver transplant.
Barwani botched-up eye camp: Sixty of 80 people operated upon for cataract at a camp in Barwani lost vision on November 22. A national committee, instituted on the request of the Union health minister, found the drugs to be substandard and infected with virus. A senior ophthalmologist and helping staff at the Barwani district hospital were suspended.
