Contaminated water, poor sanitation major killers in Punjab

[GlobalSikhNews]

Chandigarh, November 11

Surprisingly for Punjab, which boasts of being one of the top states in the country in terms of the Human Development Index, the major killer is not the burden of lifestyle diseases, but diseases from contaminated water and poor sanitation. As a result, the national programmes that address specific morbidities are inadequate to meet the state’s specific needs.

Punjab needs to have its own health policy based on its own specifications. At the moment, the state is dependent on the Central Government for social sector programmes. Thus, the state is characterised by high prevalence of water-borne and communicable diseases, low outcomes for vaccination and other basic women and child health programmes and high cost of health care.

Coming out with this finding, the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission has said that the social gap in access to health services across gender, income and social groups is large in the state, is unacceptable and this has even increased in recent years. “The morbidity patterns suggest that still a large portion of diseases are communicable in nature and are influenced by basic water and sanitation and directly related with levels of income at the household level,” the report has said.

The report has further suggested that the medical facilities available, including basic infrastructure, to run hospitals and health centres is inadequate and unsatisfactory. The report that aims at looking at what ails the system and be a background paper on “Status of Health Services and Health Outcomes in Punjab and Recommendations for the Health Sector” says that only 26 per cent of Public Health Centres (PHCs) have residential quarters for medical officers, which is much below the national average.

Only 17 per cent of the PHCs are functioning for 24 hours. However, in terms of bed availability, 75 per cent of the PHCs had at least four beds, which is above the national average. In terms of regular power supply to the PHCs, which is essential to run machines, etc, only 7.5 per cent the PHCs have a regular supply, which is a shockingly low number as compared to the national average of 36 per cent and is the worst in the country.

Further, the survey has come up with a disturbing finding that nurses were not willing to working night hours, due to security reasons. The absence of nurses, due to their sense of insecurity, contributed, as per the study, to general dissatisfaction of the communities towards the health service.

The report has recommended that fragmentation in the health sector, spreading responsibilities across departments, must be streamlined. Doctors who hold administrative positions should be trained in management and administrative skills.

Also the report before the government for implementation calls for provision for constant in- house training programmes and upgradation of skills of paramedics, nurses and other medical staff. Trauma training and counselling services are given priority in the report. Emergency services, regulation of food, diagnostic facilities, drugs and alcohol abuse are other areas in which initiatives are recommended.

And finally the paper argues that privatisation and Public Private Partnership (PPP) cannot be viewed as substitute for good governance. Rather good governance is a pre-requisite for the success of PPPs.

Source: TNS