Health Minister follows NITI Aayog’s advice

Uttar Pradesh has asked Andhra Pradesh to help improve its health system on the advice from the NITI Aayog, which has said several practices being followed by A.P. were the best in the country.

U.P. Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told the media that he had come here to study the best practices of the Health Department.

Its counterpart in his State was “unfortunately in the ICU” and several steps were needed to bring it out of that. And Andhra Pradesh had been requested to “handhold” U.P. in this regard, Mr. Singh said.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to the development of U.P. and had asked the NITI Aayog to work with the State. NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, who on Wednesday led a delegation of 17 experts to U.P., suggested several changes for developing it. When the health system came up for discussion, it pointed to A.P., Mr. Singh said.

He said the health system of U.P. was in a bad shape not because of the doctors, paramedics or bureaucrats, but because of the politics and corruption that prevailed in the State till now.

e-procurement

The e-procurement system of Andhra Pradesh which was so transparent would be put in place in U.P. and a corporation created for the purpose.

The PPP model being implemented for several services was also good and it would be used for dialysis to begin with in U.P. Mobile medical units were also required.

Swasthya Vidya Vahini, a health education initiative, was “one of the finest examples” of students gaining practical experience in a 10-month mark-based course, Mr. Singh said. A smart phone app for blood donation was also needed for U.P. which suffered from severe scarcity of blood caused by a seasonal vector-borne disease, he said.

Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas said the health care needs of the poor were met through 26 new initiatives. This had resulted in the reduction of expenses for patients from 52% to a mere 17%.

Health Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Director of Medical Education Subba Rao and Vaidya Vidhan Parishad Commissioner Durga Prasad were in the team of the A.P. officials who gave presentations on the health system.