Haryana Health and Medical Education Minister, Anil Vij on Saturday urged the Central Government to set up a Central Health Institute for conducting refresher courses for doctors and para-medical staff so that they are aprised about new medicines, techniques and equipment.
Speaking at the 12th meeting of the Central Health and Family Welfare Council in New Delhi,Vij also stress the need for opening maximum number of medical colleges to meet the shortage of doctors. He said that there should be frequent inspection of private medical colleges so as to keep an eye on their functioning.
The meeting was presided over by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, JP Nadda.
Expressing concern over the sale of medicines at very high prices, he said that central guidelines should be prepared to ensure that the poor and needy get medicines at fair price. Vij also suggested that mapping in health sector be conducted so as to know the spread of disease, if any, in a particular area. This would help in checking the diseases effectively.
The Haryana Minister said that process has been initiative to provide CT-Scan and MRI facilities in Government hospitals in seven districts of Haryana.
Vij said that with a population of 25 million and nearly 5.5 lakh births each year, we have seen a 32 per cent reduction in our maternal deaths and neonatal deaths in the last decade. The current maternal mortality ratio is 127 per lakh live births and infant mortality rate is 41 per 1000 live births.
He pointed out that the State faces a challenge of shortage of doctors, especially of the specialists in Government sector. In view of the challenge related to human resource for health, the State has focused on increasing the number of Government medical colleges from one in year 2012 to four in 2015.