Navin stresses on full utilization of NHM funds

Srinagar, May 11: Principal Secretary Health and Medical Education, Navin Kumar Choudhary Wednesday stressed on full utilization of funds earmarked for different components under National Health Mission (NHM).
He made these remarks while reviewing the performance of NHM in a meeting here.
The meeting was attended by MD NHM, Muhammad Yasin Choudhary; Director Health Services Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad Rather; Director Health Services, Jammu, Shakeel ur Rehman and many other officers and officials of the department.
The Principal Secretary impressed upon the officers of NHM to make a robust action plan for utilization of all the funds earmarked under the mission. He asked them to expend atleast 25% of funds in each quarter reaching the target of more than 75% till the end of 3rd quarter.
He directed them to submit the Utilization Certificates of spent funds at the end of each month for timely release of payments by the central government. He enjoined upon the officers to enhance their capacity for making the expenditure. He directed them to submit weekly reports on the expenditure made by them and hold monthly meetings to review the same.
Navin urged upon the both the Directors to use the manpower efficiently by sparing the medics from doing the managerial jobs. He asked them to improve the health services in far flung areas of the UT. He also directed for conducting mega health camps in the tribal areas of the UT shortly with the provision of performing small surgeries like cataract removal etc there.
The Principal Secretary further exhorted upon the directors that a health should be generated for each child under the age of 10 years reflecting their vital health parameters along with their medical history. He asked them that the same should be digitized for impromptu reference anywhere. He suggested them to initiate the process by generating these cards for all the new births.
The Principal Secretary implored upon them to prepare a roadmap for minimizing the load of referrals on tertiary care health institutions. He told them to create a responsible system of referrals in each hospital so that unnecessary referrals are avoided for best patient care.
He also took note of high prevalence of cesarean births in the UT and asked the department to curb this practice forthwith. He asked them to prefer institutional births and normal deliveries over these emergency measures.
The meeting was apprised about the achievements made by the NHM in upgrading the medical facilities to the people especially in rural areas. It was also given out that the mission has made tremendous progress in that field in all the cardinal indicators enshrined under the mission. The contribution of the mission was recognized more than once on national level by the appraisal bodies and awarded by the Health Ministry in the recent past, as was informed during this meeting.