GANGTOK, Sep 7: Arunachal Pradesh ranks fourth among the North Eastern states in the highest infant mortality rate. It is also the second state after Nagaland in the region which is lagging behind in achieving full antenatal care with just 3.6 percent.
The data was revealed in a workshop on ‘Building effective communication engagement pathways for public health in the North-East’, organised by Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in partnership with the Ministry of Development of the North East Region (MDoNER) here on Thursday.
Speaking as a resource person, Director of Regional Resource Centre, MoHFW for North-East states, Dr Bamin Tada stated that due to lack of health regulatory policies, poor private investments, demographic imbalance and geo-political situations, health sector in the north eastern states have not been able to notch up a level.
Disclosing the key challenges in the health sector, Dr Tada underscored the importance of strong political will, improvised health budget and communication system to overcome the barriers in achieving the goals of all health related schemes.
One of the panellists and Sikkim MP, PD Rai, while referring to the ‘Parliamentarians’ roundtable and healthcare in North East India’ held recently pointed out that the parliamentarians of the NE states had raised the issue of absence of medical colleges in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. He also stressed on the need to strengthen PHCs and setting up rehabilitation centres to deal with the problems of drugs, intoxicants and tobacco.
In-charge, NE Region, PHFI, Dr Priscilla C Ngaihte informed that better performing states in the country have more public investment in health.
Stressing on the role of progressive legislations, she opined that right to health should be made a ‘fundamental right’ to move towards ensuring universal health entitlements to every citizens.
The workshop participated by health care professionals, representatives of government health departments, academia, media and other stakeholders delved on mutually agreed ways for successful communication in improving health sector in the North-East region.
The 2nd North East Health Care Summit 2017 is set to commence on September 8 with an objective to strengthen focus on key health issues in the north-east region.
The workshop was part of PHFI’s media outreach programme under the Swastha Uttar Purv initiative.
