The Odisha government has decided to appoint Swasthya Sanjojaka, or health coordinator, to strengthen the help desk at government medical colleges and hospitals.

The new initiative will help relatives of patients admitted to ICUs get updates on their health status and avail information relating to the government’s health schemes. A senior nursing officer will be appointed as the Swasthya Sanjojaka.

“The Swasthya Sanjojaka will act as a link between the hospital and patients’ family and attendants for dissemination of updated information about treatment and health condition of indoor patients,” said a media release issued by the Odisha government.

The superintendents of MCHs have been directed to regularise the functioning of helpdesks by nominating a senior nursing officer as the Swasthya Sanjojaka.

Secretary in the health and family welfare department, Shalini Pandit, said: “Learning from Covid-19 showed that informing the attendants/ relatives about the patients’ updated health condition was of crucial importance for mitigating their anxiety. Such a system would also be quite helpful to the relatives/ attendants of the patients in intensive care units (ICU)/ high dependency unit (HDU) of government MCHs where access of others is restricted”.

Pandit said a nursing officer with a good attitude and aptitude will be nominated for the purpose. Earlier, the state government had engaged Swasthya Sahayaks at private hospitals empanelled under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) for facilitating cashless treatment to poor patients enrolled under the scheme.

As of now, these Swasthya Sahayaks are operating in 402 empanelled private hospitals in different districts of the state.