The Maharashtra health department’s decision to rope-in some private hospitals along with its existing network of health centres and workers has started showing results as there have been improvement in the health of tribal children in Palghar district.
Since October 26, the health department has concentrated its efforts on daily medication, supply of nutrition and routine health check up of about 6,000 children, and the results are encouraging in terms of rise in hemoglobin and body weight, state health minister Deepak Sawant said.
“Severely Active Malnourished (SAM) and Moderately Active Malnourished (MAM) are the two major categories and we focused on for improvement. The programmes, Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre for providing nutritious food, and Child Treatment Centre, were jointly implemented to get the desired effect,” he said.
“There are some children who have gained weight as high as two kg till today from October 26. Most of the children have shown improvement as they are getting daily food and medication from the government machinery as well as from the private hospitals that are roped-in,” the minister said.
“It has increased our response as well as quality of treatment to the children,” Sawant claimed.
The health department has asked the anganwadi workers as well as Asha workers to keep a tab on children who are being treated at private or government hospitals or centres and maintain a report card of the children.
“We will continue the programme for a year so that there is significant improvement in the health of the children,” Sawant said.
Six private hospitals from Mumbai city and suburban areas have participated in the drive to improve the health of children in Palghar district.
