A review of the district health society in Assam’s Dibrugarh district was held at the deputy commissioner’s office on Monday.
Reviewing the health department’s activities, deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha stressed the importance of quality healthcare for pregnant women and children.
He directed health officials, including district and block-level community mobilisers of National Health Misssion (NHM), to review, sensitise and improve the performance of Asha (accredited social health activist) and ANM (auxiliary nurse midwifery) workers, improve the reach of healthcare facilities at the grassroots, specially for child, pregnant women and during post-delivery period.
Jha said infant and maternal mortality rate of the district would reduce only with timely intervention by Asha and ANM. He directed health officials to take steps for effective implementation of government schemes related to pregnant women.
Jha also directed NHM officials to prepare a proper Information Education Communication plan to make people, specially tea garden communities, aware of such schemes so that maximum number of pregnant women can avail the benefit of the scheme. Issues such as lack of knowledge about detection of high-risk pregnancy cases, importance of exclusive breastfeeding, danger signs of illnesses in newborns, vaccination and growth chart monitoring by Asha-ANMs workers were also discussed in the meeting.
