The Odisha Government’s effort on emergency response for the distressed people being faced with natural disasters has been recognised in a national forum.
Odisha has bagged the third prize in poster presentation for “ASHA and Gaon Kalyan Samiti (GKS) led community activities during Cyclone Fani at the 6th National Summit on Good & Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Healthcare System in India.
The award was received by Mission Director, the National Health Mission (NHM) Shalini Pandit and Managing Director Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) Yamini Sarangi.
Depicting success story through poster presentation, Pandit has pointed out how awareness was generated among the Fani-devastated people, who were in distress.
Emergency response for cyclone FANI in Odisha was prepared before the super storm struck Odisha coast on May 3. The entire team of Health Odisha was in readiness led by Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Pramod Kumar Meherda and MD NHM Pandit.
Pre and post storm strategies were chalked out and people were made aware about the steps to be taken and the ASHA and GKS were given training about the strategies.
Over 15 Lakh people were shifted to safer zones and that is why lakhs of people were saved. During cyclone all emergency services were alerted and healthcare was given utmost importance by the authorities.
Emergency Response for healthcare was of the top agenda of the State Government, which was monitored by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik regularly. The Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), the flagship healthcare scheme of Odisha also received kudos at the summit.
While Odisha opted out of Ayushman Bharat and innovated the BSKY, eyebrows were raised. However with effective implementation of the scheme, BSKY stands out as a milestone under Sustainable Development Goal in achieving universal health coverage (UHC).
Odisha, which faced several challenges towards achieving UHC faced shortage of human resources, gaps in infrastructure and out -of -pocket spending (OOPS) by the patients, pointed out NHM MD Pandit.
Towards achieving UHC, the State Government introduced several reforms for making healthcare accessible, afforadable and equitable, while assuring quality, she said during making a presentation at the summit.
For Improving healthcare service in difficult areas provision of alternative transportation system was organized and mobile health units were arranged in tribal blocks and maternity waiting homes for expectant mother from notified difficult villages.
The State Government in order to attract and retain doctors, place based incentives were provided for doctors, specialists, and others. 44 per cent improvement was found in availability of Medical Officers in KBK and KBK plus districts.
197 private hospitals were empanelled for provisioning free healthcare services to economically vulnerable families.
Free healthcare services for all public health facilities up to medical colleges under BSKY with waiving off all user fees; hot cooked meal for patient attendants at AAHAR centers; strategic purchasing of services in PPP mode for critical care and high-end diagnostic services were roped in.
Special assistance for cashless services at empanelled private hospitals were made available for 70 lakh families. Annually more than Rs 1,712.76 crore are being spent under State Budget schemes excluding NHM Budget.