MDA govt to launch MOTHER program
SHILLONG: In a bid to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality rate in the state, the MDA government is all set to launch the Meghalaya’s Outcomes oriented Transformation in Health, nutrition, Education and Rural development Program or the MOTHER program across the state.
Addressing the 73rd Independence Day function at Polo Grounds on Thursday, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said the state’s performance on key maternal and child health indicators like infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate is not satisfactory.
The Infant Mortality Rate is 39 deaths per 1000 livebirths and the Maternal Mortality rate is 197 deaths per 100,000 livebirths.
Stating that his goal is to reduce these numbers dramatically in the next 2-3 years, the chief minister said the Meghalaya’s Outcomes oriented Transformation in Health, nutrition, Education and Rural development Program or the MOTHER program will be launched across the state.
He said this name signifies the centrality of mothers in achieving development goals in Health, Nutrition and Education adding the MOTHER program is my Government’s tribute to all the women (mei’s and magipa’s) of the State.
“Once the program is launched across the State, all grass root development functionaries will have the MOTHER app on their phones. They will collect key data on Health, Nutrition, Education and Rural Development and the same data will be seen in the CMs dash board in real time. This micro data will be used to make policies and to drive transformational development,” he said.
He further informed that earlier, the government has successfully piloted a new initiative that uses real time data on the pregnant women to monitor their health status on a continuous basis.
Under this data driven model, primary data on pregnant women is collected by the Medical Officers and Health functionaries through a mobile app.
He said this data is updated regularly and can be seen in Shillong by me and other health officials. Each pregnant woman can be tracked and on any given day, the number of women due for delivery can be seen on the Chief Minister’s Dash Board.
In South West Garo Hills District, where this initiative was piloted, institutional deliveries improved by 30 percent in just 3 months.
“Now we are expanding this project to all the districts of the State and to cover not only health and institutional deliveries, but also the sectors of Nutrition, Education and Rural Development,” he said.
The chief minister said a second key constraint in health care provision is lack of adequate infrastructure and human resources while informed that there are only 436 government doctors in the entire State.
Asserting the need for more private sector and civil society participation to improve this State of affairs, he said, “Currently about 22 health institutions are being managed in a PPP mode. The government intends to expand this engagement.”
“In addition, we are also trying to leverage external resources for improving the sector. The “Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project” has been recently proposed for World Bank funding,” he added.
Referring to another crucial aspect in health care which is availability of free medicines at all health facilities, he said, Rs 66 crore has been allocated in this year for the procurement of medicines adding “We are developing an on line system for collating medicine demand in a bottom-up manner.”
“The online system will have a dashboard that will enable me and other Health functionaries to monitor the disbursement of medicines regularly. We are also constructing warehousing for the storage of medicines in all the district headquarters and at CHCs with an investment of about Rs 20 crore,” he said.
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