SRINAGAR : Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Chief Secretary, today stressed on extending the facility of online appointments with doctors in the health institutions of Jammu & Kashmir.He made it clear to the health officers that they must work quickly to make this service available to the general public within a month. Dr. Mehta was speaking at the National Health Mission’s (NHM) 12th Governing Body meeting, which was also attended by Principal Secretary Jal Shakti, Commissioner Secretaries of RDD, Social Welfare, and Health, the MD of the NHM, the Principal of the GMC Srinagar/Jammu, Directors of MCH&I and Ayush, and the MD of the NHM.Dr. Mehta suggested that the Department must connect their own system with the prior online appointments that are given to patients at many of the nation’s best hospitals in order to make visiting a hospital easier. He advised them to use the most straightforward and effective approach available. The chief secretary also ordered the officials to digitise patient records and other archival information so that it is always available. He said that a database containing all health information on a person from birth to the present day could be created by combining data from medical facilities, Anganwadi centres, and educational institutions. He exhorted them to set a goal of completely digitising all of the individual health records in this UT. Both the National Health Mission (NHM) in J&K and the Secretary of Health, Bhupinder Kumar, provided a thorough summary of the department’s operations during the event.In order to provide 24 hours a day, hassle-free services to the public, it was announced that a sufficient number of Critical Care Ambulances had been deployed throughout the medical facilities in J&K and integrated with the 108 contact centre. Additionally, it was said that the utilisation of money from the previous five years, starting in 2018–19, has increased steadily with each passing year. It was discovered that 72% of the Rs 671.75 Cr in funds available for the 2018–19 fiscal year were actually used. In 2022–23, the amount climbed to Rs 900.64 Cr, while the utilisation rate significantly increased to 98.68% from the previous fiscal year. The Governing Body discussed the State Programme Implementation Programme (SPIP) worth Rs 1441.60 Cr for FY 2023–24, the purchase of Covid essential diagnostic and pharmaceuticals, and the adoption of IT interventions like HMIS (e-SAHAJ) from District Hospitals and Community Health Centres to Tertiary Care Hospitals. In accordance with current labour rules, it also included maternity leave for contractual female staff as well as other HR-related problems to ensure the mission ran smoothly and effectively.
