Government conducts consultative Writeshop to draft CPHC Guidelines for Meghalaya

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 22, 2022

The National Health Mission, Meghalaya in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi has organized a three-day writeshop, from 20^th to 22^nd July 2022 at the Meghalaya Administrative Training Institute (MATI), Mawdiangdiang, on drafting Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) Guidelines for Meghalaya.

The purpose of the writeshop was to bring together all the key stakeholders in the health system and engage them in framing the guidelines in a manner that is consultative and participatory. Group-based activities were conducted to deliberate on health issues, mapping of care pathways and care packages to ensure efficient and appropriate interventions are delivered. This entailed analyses of existing gaps pertaining to human resources, financing, Information Systems, Referral Networks and community participation.

The Government of Meghalaya launched the State Health Policy in March 2021. This policy brought out a three-dimensional positive healthcare model focusing on preventive, curative and enabling aspects. Since its launch, the State has taken many strides towards achieving the Health Policy objectives, including the need for quality, effective and accessible primary health care for the people of the State. Shifting the focus from selective to comprehensive primary healthcare, the Government of Meghalaya has taken proactive action in order to frame the guidelines for achieving Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) that is universal, free and close to the community. 

The first two days of deliberations were invested with community members, Self Help Groups, frontline health workers and programme managers of the Departments of Health & Family Welfare, Social Welfare (ICDS) and C&RD (National Rural Livelihood Mission). The final day sessions were chaired by Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, Health Department and was facilitated by Dr. Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Senior Fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi under the guidance of Dr. T. Sundararaman, Former Executive Director, National Health Systems Resource Centre and Former Professor of Internal Medicine, JIPMER, Pondicherry, and Mr. Rajeev Sadanandan, Health Secretary (Retd.) to the Government of Kerala and CEO, Health Systems Transformation Platform. The State was fortunate to have the expert guidance of Dr Sundararaman and Mr Sadanandan, who have years of experience in Health policy-making, community-centred responsive and adaptive health care delivery systems at the state and national level. This session was also attended by the Director of Health Services(MI), Director of Health Services(MCH), Director of Health Services(R), Mission Director NHM, DMHOs and Medical Officers.