NE lags behind from rest of India in health care indicators

By Jimmy Leivon

GANGTOK | Sept 10

The two-day ‘2nd North East Healthcare Summit’ which concluded on September 9 in Gangtok stressed on collaborative strengthening health care systems amongst all Northeastern States to achieve the sustainable development goals.   

The summit was organised by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in partnership with the ministry of MDoNER, the government of Sikkim and the Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital (STNM), Gangtok, Sikkim.

In his address the Arjun Kumar congratulated the organisers – PHFI, STNM Hospital and DoNER for organising the second edition of the Summit in Sikkim that highlights key issues in today’s evolving healthcare scenario pertinent to Northeastern parts of India.

“Poor healthcare services in the Northeast and the need to enhance manpower, including setting up of more medical colleges in the region is the requirement of the day. There is an urgent need to review the progress of schemes sanctioned by centre or the NEC towards the improvement of healthcare services in the region, especially infrastructure, in addition to finding out better ways and means to remove health problems and inaccessibility to quality healthcare especially in rural areas of the region”, he said.

In her video address Dr Soumya Swaminathan, director general ICMR, said, “Northeast is one of the most vibrant regions in India, but its health indicators have unfortunately lagged behind from the rest of India on many counts. With so much technological and infrastructure advancements, it is time to bring about a rapid improvement in the public health indicators, especially in light of the renewed commitment by the central government towards the entire Northeast region.”

This year’s 2nd Northeast Healthcare summit concentrated on emerging health concerns in the region with a special emphasis on the current scenario in Northeast and the sustainable development goals (SDG). The themes for this year’s summit were: mental health and substance abuse, non-communicable diseases, health policy, service delivery and health systems strengthening and environmental health. 

The summit falls under the umbrella of Project Swasth Uttar Purv, under the aegis of DoNER ministy that is committed to address the identified and felt needs of the eight states of the Northeast by promoting policy and programme relevant research, by filling critical information gaps, conducting health summits and Health Conclaves, conducting impact assessments and cancer awareness programs, evaluating innovations for improving the outreach and effectiveness of health systems, ultimately developing a robust public health cadre in the Northeast.

The summit saw representation from the respective Northeastern states from secretary, health Meghalaya Shangpliang and mission director of NHM, Mizoram Lalrozama, RRC, MoHFW, Bamin Tada amongst other high end officials from the states and representatives from WHO,UNICEF and experts and academia from across the country.

The summit was inaugurated by Arjun Kumar Ghatani, minister, healthcare, human services and family welfare, Sikkim along with PD Rai, member of parliament from Sikkim.

 Also present on the occasion were Alok Kumar Srivastav, chief secretary, Sikkim, Dr K Bhandari, director-general-cum secretary health, Sikkim, Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, vice president PHFI, Dr KB Gurung, medical superintendent STNM Hospital, Dr. Priscilla C Ngaihte, in-charge, Northeast Region (Special Projects)  along with a host of senior government health officials from all the Northeastern states of India.