The UT Administration has launched Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram on the occasion of Children’s Day in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The initiative is to provide comprehensive healthcare and improve the quality of life of children through early detection of birth defects, diseases, deficiencies, development delays including disability. The UT Director Health Services, Dr Sunil Kumar Bhalla, informed that in Chandigarh, the services aim to cover all children of 0-6 years of age group in rural areas and urban slums, in addition to older children up to 18 years of age enrolled in classes I to XII in Government and Government aided schools.
It is expected that these services will reach and benefit about 3 lakh children in a phased manner in schools. About 26,000 newborns in the Government hospitals and about 50,000 in anganwadis, about 6,000 to 8,000 in private hospitals will benefit from the initiative. He informed that the nodal officers have been identified, teams have been formulated and trained to screen children at anganwadi, school, early intervention centre (GMSH-16 level). Special provisions for out of turn checkup for referred cases shall be available at Government Multi Specialty Hospital-Sector 16 so as to save the precious time of students and to reduce workman day loss to parents.
He added that the data shall be generated especially with regard to referred cases by teams, self referrals or detection at secondary/tertiary care centers for assessment of quality of programme implementation. Anil Kumar, UT Secretary Health added that the early newborn screening should be ensured for every child. For this, the existing facilities at Government Medical College and Hospital Sector 32 will be expanded very soon.