‘I am going to open 100 large hospitals across the state’
When it comes to healthcare, Uttar Pradesh has made headlines for all the wrong reasons, ranging from the deaths due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Gorakhpur each year to more than 50 people getting infected with HIV in Unnao last month.
However, state’s health minister, Sidharth Nath Singh, said in an interview that UP’s draft health policy would improve health facilities in the state by strengthening infrastructure and curbing graft. Excerpts:
How prepared are you to deal with seasonal JE outbreak ?
In the month of December (in 2017), we came up with a one year programme that’s like a policy document consisting of week-wise plans. Last year, against the Centre’s JE vaccination target of 88 lakh children, we vaccinated 93 lakh in 38 endemic districts. This year, 56 lakh children will be vaccinated from April 1-15.
What about AES?
Between April 1 to 15, 615 villages, where maximum AES cases are reported, will be covered. The departments of health, sanitation, drinking water, panchayati raj, animal husbandry and urban development will coordinate to control the spread of AES in these areas. Old hand pumps will be replaced as scrub typhus linked to AES is found around them. The corroded pumps are being changed by the panchayati raj. The carriers are pigs and cows, so animal husbandry is immunising animals. We have created crèches in paddy fields where children can be dropped off while their mothers work.
Do you feel better prepared this year to deal with the diseases?
Last year, it was unfortunate the way the story was reported by the electronic media. The deaths had nothing to do with oxygen. Two hundred children were connected to the ventilator and six died when supply stopped. You have to start treating children the moment they develop fever. Apart from prevention, we are ensuring that in all these districts, the doctors and the 1,300 ANMs (auxiliary nurse midwife) give antibiotics to children as soon as they get fever. We’ve also strengthened infrastructure. We have 10 PICUs (Pediatric Intensive care Unit) with 100 beds. The doctors who had been trained for JE and AES but got posted to other places will be pulled back for four months to work only in PICUs handline JE/ AES cases at places like the BRD Medical College.
What is your strategy to revamp healthcare delivery?
We’ve created a better health policy document than the one the government of India has produced. That (national health policy) is 170 pages, I created (UP’s) in 26. The policy is a road map on how to build infrastructure and limit corruption.
Are you looking at public– private partnership (PPP) to deliver the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS)?
The policy addresses how we can go forward on a PPP mode. It cannot be that Mulayam Singh likes something and it gets done, or Mayawati likes something and it’s done. UP needs to be looked at holistically.
The draft policy, which still has to be approved by the cabinet, states that we must have a PPP mode in B-towns, where the government gives gram sabha land to the private players and they put up the entire infrastructure. They run the show.
We (the state) pay them for the OPDS. The NHPS will now take care of IPDs (in-patient department) costs. I’m going to open 100 of these hospitals across UP. At the investors’ summit, many private players signed MOUs for the initiative.
Where are you getting doctors and medical personnel from?
When I took over, I had a shortfall of 7,500 doctors. Primary health centres don’t need MBBS doctors to treat diarrhoea, cough and fever. We have already posted 3,000 Ayush practitioners at PHCS. I did not wait for Lok Sabha Aayog to give me doctors, I opened walk-in interviews for 1,000 (doctors). I opened the position for three specialists — paediatrician, gynaecologist, anaesthetist — online in high-priority districts. And whatever price they quoted, I offered them. In 11 months, the shortfall is down from 7,500 to 2,500.
How will NHPS work?
I think it’s a dream come true. We were anyway going to launch the RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana), and in November I was absolutely ready but unfortunately an insurance company filed a PIL, which held it up. We planned to top ₹ 30,000 in RSBY to ₹2.5 lakh, but then the government came with the NHPS. The success of this entire scheme is the IT platform. When you hold that (NHPS) card, it should become cashless. We have worked on this and have a good IT platform now. My infrastructure is ready, 1,200 hospitals private and public have been certified and registered. From the 2011 census list, I have roughly 1.5 crore families that will get cover.