The Union Government has sanctioned a budget of Rs 515.64 Crore for Uttarakhand under National Health Mission (NHM). The State has got Rs 90 crore more under NHM this year as compared with last year. The approval was given in a meeting of National Programme Coordination Committee (NPCC) held in New Delhi on Monday.
The Secretary Health, Nitesh Jha led the team of the Uttarakhand which was represented by Mission Director, NHM Yugal Kishore Pant and Director General (DG) health services Dr Archana Srivastava among others.
Under the annual work plan of NHM, clearances to purchase 28 ambulances and one boat ambulance were given while 44 ambulances would be received under the Khusihio Ki Sawari scheme under which the mother and new born child are send back to homes after institutional delivery.
Under NHM, high dependency units would be opened at Haridwar, Kotdwar, Haldwani, Rudrapur, Gopeshwar, Uttarkashi amd Doon Medical College.
These units will also have Intensive Care Units (ICU) under them.
The financial clearance to make a 100 bed hospital at Coronation hospital was also given in the meeting. Transit hostels would be set up near four Government hospitals and 17 Community Health Centres (CHC) for the benefit of the transferred medical officers. Under the National Urban Health Mission, a clearance to set up 39 urban health centres in the state was also given.
The NPCC also approved upgrading 330 sub centres as health and wellness centres for providing better health facilities in the rural areas.
A decision to recruit 500 new ASHA workers was also taken in the meeting. The decision is expected to boost the health system in Uttarakhand. There are 11086 ASHA workers in the State.