SHILLONG:
State Health and Family Welfare Minister James Sangma has said that affordable quality healthcare and accessibility were the priority of the MDA government.
Taking a jibe at former governance, the minister further stated that quality healthcare, affordable treatment and accessible facilities, these have been mere words for a long time now in the state.
“Huge promises were accompanied by lack of efforts, a sick person would suffer without adequate treatment, families were pushed to the brink of poverty as they spent all their savings due to the lack of sufficient government support,” Sangma said.
Sangma said that in 2018 the National People’s Party (NPP) decided there needs to be a change.
“We took a resolve that healthcare must be treated as priority because it was not a privilege meant for the ones who could pay but it was the right of each and every individual,” he added.
Sangma said that one of their first goals was to make healthcare more affordable, which previously impacted people from the rural areas and the ones from financially weaker backgrounds.
The minister stated that the government kept on investing in this goal and by 2022, it was able to increase health insurance coverage to Rs. 5,30,000 lakh per head for all citizens of the state under MHIS.
Sangma said that the government could not stay satisfied with just affordability as they wanted to target a system where the people did not have to undergo suffering in the first place and therefore, his next goal was quality.
He said that with immense support from Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, the government was able to dramatically transform the healthcare infrastructure of the state, especially in areas where even a basic clinic felt like a boon before.
“A classic example is that of Jengjal in West Garo Hills, a place where people had to earlier travel for miles before being able to access a basic health facility,” he added.
According to him, due to the department’s initiatives, the Jengjal Sub-Division Hospital was started.
“Run by highly qualified doctors from the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, today this hospital undoubtedly has become one of the best government hospitals in the whole of Garo Hills,” Sangma said.
More recently, the Health and family Welfare Department was able to put in place a 100-bedded facility at the Baljek Integrated Health Complex where high-quality treatment and specialised care has been made available.
Sangma said that the Health Department was able to establish the required infrastructure combined with the deployment of trained professionals, thousands of pregnant mothers are able to deliver healthier babies safely due to which the Maternal Mortality Rate has come down by 9 percent.
Further, many more infants are receiving adequate nutrition, reducing the Infant Mortality Rate by 21 percent.
He also said that more than 2 lakh mothers have benefitted from our programs and schemes till date.
“Today, 91 per cent of our children are immune to any deadly infection or disease, a feat which very few states have achieved in the entire country,” the health and family Welfare Minister said.
He also said that the last goal, accessibility, has also shown immense results.