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Five-year healthcare plan ‘ready’
KATHMANDU, JUL 31 -
With a view to increase access and provide quality healthcare to the country’s urban poor, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoPH) has readied the National Urban Health Policy (NUHP), beginning this fiscal year.
The five-year policy aimed at providing accessible, affordable and reliable primary healthcare facilities to people living in town was prepared jointly by the Ministry of Local Development and MoPH. Both the Ministries will jointly launch urban-poor-centred programmes as per the policy for the period 2010 to 2014.
Despite the fact that there is the highest concentration of doctors and health facilities, the poor in urban areas are deprived of basic health services, according to Dr. Bhim Singh Tinkari, chief of Primary Health Care Revitalisation Division, under Department of Health Services.
“Therefore, MoHP is introducing this policy to delivery primary health services to poor people in 58-municipalities across the country,” said Dr. Tankari.
He also said that Child Health Division under Ministry of Health and other organisations assisting health services namely World Health Organisation, United Nation Child Fund (UNICEF) had often raised concern for not being able to outreach of immunisation programme among urban poor due to lack of clear policy and structure reaching to them.
As per data provided by MoHP, in 1981, of the total population of the country the urban population was 6.4 percent, whereas the population in 2001 reached 13.9 percent.
Of which 25.2 percent of the total urban population are poor. Similarly, the 45.6 percent of urban households have no sanitary system and 55 percent have no appropriate garbage disposal system.
At least 4.3 million populations of 58 municipalities (15 percent of the total population of the country) including in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, covering 43 districts do not have luxury of receiving preventive and primary health care services provided either free to the rural population, according to official at MoPH.
Under the Free Essential Health Care Services, the government has been providing 40 essential drugs at district hospitals, 32 at health post and 22 at sub-health posts since 2007.
According to NUHP, each ward will have at least an Urban Health Centre and one urban health volunteer. Similarly, the centre will procure free essential drugs as provided in sub-health post in rural areas.
“The services of the centre mainly will focus on poor, marginalised slum population and population living in squatters living across 58 municipalities of the country, emphasising on immunisation, leprosy, polio,” said Dr. Tankari.
Posted on: 2010-08-01 07:47
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