Shillong: Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare virtually inaugurated a “Regional Consultative Workshop on Research Priority for Providing Accessible and Affordable Healthcare for the Northeastern States of India” on Wednesday.
Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and Dr Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Meghalaya were also present.
The two-day workshop is being jointly organized in Shillong by the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; Indian Institute of Public Health, Shillong and Indian Council of Medical Research – Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh.
Addressing the gathering, Dr Mandaviya said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream is to create a healthy India, a developed India, in which every citizen of the country should get quality health facilities on time; health facilities and medicines should become easily affordable, accessible and available; and health facilities should be spread in all geographical areas and have balanced availability”.
He said that the effort of the government is to ensure that everyone gets access to health facilities in an equal manner without any distinction between rich and poor. To achieve this objective, the government has worked with policies and various schemes due to which India has created a health model that gives meaning to the spirit of ‘Sarva Jan Hitay, Sarva Jan Sukhaay’”.
On the commitment of the Union Government for the development of the Northeast region, Dr Mandaviya said, “In the last 10 years, efforts have been made to bring it into the mainstream of the country by connecting it with all types of connectivity like Health, Roadways, Railways, I-Ways, Waterways and Ropeway etc. For the first time in the country, the North East region has started to be seen as the growth engine of India. Healthcare today has become accessible and available for this entire region.”
“In the last 10 years, institutions like RIMS (Regional Institute of Medical Sciences), RIPANS (Regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences), NEIGRIHMS (Northeastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences) and Assam AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) have been developed and 23 new medical colleges have been opened in the region. ICMR has also developed various health facilities in the region”, he further said.
During the occasion, the Union Health Minister also inaugurated a Market Place and launched a Master’s Program on Health Economics and Technology Assessment in IIPH, Shillong.
Union Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar during her interaction with the Press said that under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has made phenomenal progress in delivering healthcare services to the innermost regions and remote areas of the nation.
She said that the northeastern states have benefitted immensely from innovations and initiatives taken in the health sector, and schemes like Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centers among others are successfully providing primary healthcare services at grassroot level.
Explaining the purpose of the workshop, Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research and DG, ICMR said, “Through this workshop we want to discuss all the research priorities for the northeast states so that we can start specific research projects for NE. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on research and innovation is exemplified from the fact that he has added the term Jai Anusandhan to the ever popular slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan.
Dr Bahl said that another objective of the workshop is to make affordable health technology available to the state. “We should use the resources in the most judicious way and we should get it at the lowest cost and make it affordable to the people of India. Which will only be possible through products which are developed and made in India,” he added. Dr Bahl said that the workshop will discuss in detail the concept and domains of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), recent advancements in the field, and its role in policy making in the healthcare sector.
Anu Nagar, Joint Secretary, Department of Health Research; Shri Sampath Kumar, Principal Health Secretary, Meghalaya and senior officials of the Union Government and Government of Meghalaya were present on the occasion.
