Guwahati: Assam government today said it will roll out a number of health schemes, including tele-radiology, iron plus initiative for young girls and free inter-hospital ambulance services, at a total expenditure of over Rs 300 crore.
The five different programmes will be launched on Sunday by the Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in the state capital.
“The total expenditure of the five programmes will be at least Rs 300 crore.
This entire amount for this year has been funded by the Central government under the NRHM (National Rural Health Mission),” Assam Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters here.
The first initiative is introduction of tele-radiology facility for the first time in the country.
This facility will be launched at the capital city-based Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital.
The second one is introduction of Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS).
This will primarily be a telephone-based facility to monitor the health condition of pregnant ladies.
“This facility will be launched for the first time in the country. In the state, around six lakh women get pregnant every year and we are targeting to cover around 35 per cent of them,” Sarma said.
The government will roll out a new ‘Iron Plus’ scheme to cover all the women in the state since their birth till the time they reach the college.
“We already take care of the iron nutrition of the pregnant ladies. With this new initiative, now all girl child will be covered and they will get free iron supplement. This will benefit 40-50 lakh girls,” Sarma said.
The fourth scheme is starting of an inter-hospital ambulance service that will be used for referral cases for better medical treatment to a bigger and advanced health care facility at the nearest place.
“The service will be ‘102’. Many other states also have it, but they charge for this facility. In Assam, it will be completely free of cost,” Sarma said, adding the total expenditure in this will be Rs 75 crore annually.
The government will initially start the service with 150 vehicles, which will be expanded to 480 ambulances in the near future to cover all the government and NRHM recognised charitable hospitals, he added.
Sarma further said the government will also introduce a school health programme.
Around 300 doctors have been taken on board for this scheme to monitor the health of the school kids. (PTI)