Providing Assured and Comprehensive Health Services is Health Ministry's Foremost Priority

Providing assured and comprehensive health services, which will offer an assured set of services encompassing preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare would be the foremost priority of the health ministry, informed Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda while speaking at the second meeting of the Mission Steering Group (MSG) of the National Health Mission (NHP). Minister Nadda said, "Healthcare needs to be patient centric, which is not clinically appropriate but where dignity of the patient is also respected. My ministry proposes to give a major thrust to improving quality of healthcare in public facilities. The government is dedicated to the concept of cooperative federalism wherein the Center will work with the state governments as true partners and support them financially and technically to strengthen their health systems. While we will continue to strengthen the NHM approaches, there will be shift in emphasis based on our learning from various evaluations and Common Review Missions."

The Health Minister cautioned the states against wastages in public health system while stressing the need for collective effort to improve the efficiencies. He said, "The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) together form the basis of the ministry's effort at health system reform. I hope that the states would be able to incorporate learning from NRHM in implementing the NUHM in order to rapidly scale up implementation."

Nadda assured the members of the MSG that their valuable suggestions to further enrich and strengthen the NHM will be discussed and incorporated.

Source-Medindia