Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 11
The government of Nagaland has over the years put in lots of effort to strengthen its healthcare sector but facilities still eludes many people especially those living in the rural areas. The quality of service too needs improvement while healthcare management is one of the areas which need to be strengthened.
A survey report compiled by a non-governmental organization called Nagaland Voluntary Health Association (NVHA) shows that diseases like asthma, tuberculosis, jaundice and malaria still remains high above the national average. Though there has been remarkable improvement in containing diseases like tuberculosis, the quality of service because of inadequate trained health care providers also remains a concern, the survey noted.
Currently HIV/AIDS prevalent in the state 1.20% (source: NSACS) and Nagaland remains one of the six highest HIV prevalent states in the country. There is also high prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) cases, the NVHA survey report shows. Maternal and infant mortality rate is considered to be much higher than the national average while there is an increase in incidence of lifestyle related diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer etc.
As per the 2001 census (source: State Human Development Report 2004) the state’s requirement for community health centres (CHC), Primary Heath Centres (PHC) and sub-centres was considerably high. The distribution of health centres in rural areas was said to be 36.95% for CHC, 26.28% for PHC and 33.33% for sub-centres. As per the requirement, the government went on an inauguration spree of health centres only to leave many of them dysfunctional. Reports indicate that there was excess of PHCs in many district of the state and the presence of doctors was scarce.
One of the main problems that plague the healthcare sector is shortage of doctors and nurses in the state. The NVHA report says that the current doctor population ratio stands at 1:4000 while and the recommended ratio is 1:3500. Many doctors in the state have indicated the dearth of healthcare specialists and the need is felt even more in case of growing population. Despite the efforts made by the government to increase its coverage to promote health, the report indicated that the quality of service is still poor as many of the centres are still under-developed and poorly equipped. Apart from Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung which are rated as ‘medium’ in regard to manpower, institutional infrastructure and supplies of drugs and consumables, rest of the eight districts is regarded as ‘low.’ (Poor: Centres without labour room, OPD, pharmacy, equipments etc. Medium: Centres equipped but under utilized, poor attendance: absenteeism and irregularity of staff).
The poor record of the healthcare sector indicates measures to be adopted by the department. Apart from the need to put specific mechanism in place to fix the problem, NVHA suggests accountability of all frontline service providers. Many doctors also suggest public private partnership of healthcare services to strengthen the hands of the healthcare sector in the state.
