UP Health Services to get face-lift, World Bank extends cooperation

Sanjay Bhatnagar

Lucknow: In an assured backing of the World Bank, the Uttar Pradesh Health Services are in for a massive revamp which included augmentation of government hospitals and decentralisation of health administration in a big way.

As many as 60 out of 175 hospitals would be given a facelift by December 2018 while revamping of Directorate General of Medical Health has already been in the planning stage,Siddharth Nath Singh, the UP Health Minister told 'newstrack.com'.

At least Rs three crore each is required to improve the basic infrastructure of Outdoor Patients Department (OPDs) and other basic amenities of the district hospitals which will further lead to strengthening of Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres.

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The World Bank assistance in the health services, claimed by UP Health Minister as the landmark achievement of the state government, was reached to an agreement after his elaborate meeting with Junaid Ahmad, the Country Head of the WB who was in the state capital on Friday.

Siddharth Nath said that the administrative set up of DG Medical Services would soon be revamped with the state being divided into six clusters each to be headed by a director level doctor. Instead of sitting in the Directorate General at Lucknow, they would be sitting in the field which, in turn, would give fresh impetus to region-specific health problems.

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He said the the WB Director sounded committed to work with the UP government as a leveraging partner for strengthening the department of Medical Health and Family Welfare in the state."Proposed areas for strengthening include the operationalization of E-Hospital, streamlining of Human Resources, ensuring availability of equipment, face-lifting , facility branding among others,'' he added.

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