Chandigarh 23 March
Swinging into action, a day after taking over as Cabinet Minister of departments of Health & Family Welfare and Medical Education & Research, Dr. Vijay Singla here today chaired 2 back to back maiden meeting of the top brass of both these key department at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh. He took stock of the present scenario and reviewed the functioning of these departments in the presence of the senior officers and other Programme officers etc., who apprised the Health Minister about the status of works and facilities being provided to the community under their respective components. Sh Raj Kamal Chaudhuri, Principal Secretary Health, Sh Alok Shekhar, Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Sh Kumar Rahul, MD NHM, Sh Amit Kumar, Special Secretary Medical Education, Sh Bhupinder Singh, MD PHSC and Dr GB Singh, Director Health Services Punjab were among the senior most officers present there.
During the meeting, Dr. Vijay Singla expressed his concern that there does not existed even a single Cath Lab in any of the Government Medical College in the state due to which patient of cardiac issues requiring immediate medical intervention are forced to go to private hospitals, who charge exorbitantly, while many others are forced to struggle in far located Govt. tertiary hospitals out of the state that already face heavy patient load. He said he will take up on priority, the initiative to open Cath labs in the Government Medical Colleges at the earliest so that prompt life saving testing and treatment facilities could be made available to the people of Punjab.
He also emphasized to fill the shortage of doctors in the government health institutions on top most priority, without any delay. The Health Minister also directed the Department to recover the bond money from doctors who had resigned soon after completing their postgraduate without fulfilling the service conditions or depositing the requisite bond money. He asked officers to rationalize the bond requirement for different specialities.
He reviewed the functioning of Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojana the scheme which entitles free medical insurance and free treatment in empanelled hospitals. The Health Minister pointed out the shortcomings and asked the officers to immediately rectify them and also arrange a detailed review & discussion about the scheme, in the next few days, on priority. He asked the officers of PHSC and other wings of the department to ensure that a fool proof system and transparent procurement policy is adopted so that the department is able to procure only good quality items including drugs, consumables etc and that too on competitive rates.
He also reviewed the functioning of Blood Banks and other related services.
Dr Vijay Singla also gave directions to immediately ramp up the screening of diseases like Dengue, Malaria, and Chikungunya etc so that the department is able to contain its spread timely, well before the transmission season, and is not caught unaware. He further directed to conduct thorough review of each and every maternal death and ascertain the reasons behind it so that department may strengthen the relevant areas and save precious lives of mothers or children dying during deliveries.
He said that aggressive Covid vaccination campaigns will be launched to cover all eligible people and vaccinate them against this virus.
Taking stock of the Drug de-addiction programme, the Health Minister directed that the functioning of OOAT Clinic and de-addiction & rehabilitation centres needs to be improved and said he would conduct a dedicated meeting soon, to chalk out strategies and plug the gaps under the programme. He also laid stress upon further streamlining the ambulance services for the general public in an orderly manner on the basis of requirement. He further discussed the shortcoming in Health Wellness Programme and said the gaps need to be filled to make them as successful as the Mohalla Clinics in Delhi. The Engineering Wing of Punjab Health System Corporation will visit the health facilities and will ensure the removal of any shortcomings found in this regard.
Dr. Vijay Singla directed that day to day issues of public like early release of food sampling reports, chemical testing reports, medical reimbursements, issuances of mandatory registrations and licences under FSSAI or any other relevant act and medical reports etc should be made people friendly and be implemented in time bound manner and without any public harassment. He said that our government would make all the health institutions online as well as improve their connectivity for better services. He exhorted everyone in the department to work honestly and diligently to make Punjab a model state in the country. There shall be a zero tolerance policy towards any kind of corruption in the department and anyone found guilty shall be dealt with iron hands. He asked that punctuality of attendance should be maintained so that people may not have to suffer due to non availability of officials on their seats.
