‘HEALTH CARE A PRIORITY IN J&K, LADAKH’
Medical education and tertiary health care facilities will be priorities in the new Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has said. “We’ll establish medical education, tertiary health care facilities soon.”
NEWDELHI: Medical education and tertiary health care facilities will be priorities in the new Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has said.
“We will establish medical education and tertiary health care facilities soon. Besides continuing thrust on improving maternal and child health and reducing tuberculosis incidence, greater thrust will be placed on prevention and control of common non-communicable diseases, including hypertension, diabetes and three common cancers of breast, cervix and oral,” he said in an interview.
For 2019-20, a budgetary allocation of ₹963 crore was made under the National Health Mission to strengthen J&K’s health systems.
Since 2015-16, 145 projects have been sanctioned under the ₹900crore Prime Minister’s Development Package to create health infrastructure in district and subdistrict hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres by 2020.
Two All India Institutes of Medical Sciences are in the process of being set up in Vijaynagar area of J&K’s Samba district and in Awantipura in south Kashmir.
The UTs will also get five medical colleges and ten 50-bed model maternal and child health wings Under the Prime Minister’s National Dialysis Programme, dialysis services are being operationalised in 15 district hospitals.
“The focus will also be on strengthening the ambulance network to improve transport of critical-care patients and pregnant women, especially in hardto-reach areas,” Harsh Vardhan said.
“The ministry’s 100 days’ agenda includes setting up 75 medical colleges in uncovered districts of the country, strengthening the universal immunisation programme by countrywide rollout of rotavirus vaccine by September 2019, and starting MBBS classes at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital,” said Harsh Vardhan, who inaugurated a medical college named after late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpapee at RML Hospital on Friday.