“This NHM National Summit is a celebration of ideas, innovations and knowledge sharing and we all must take back these and ensure that we implement at-least a few of them” said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare as he inaugurated the Sixth National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations along with Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare Shri. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shri. Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat, Shri. Nitinbhai Ratilal Patel, Dy. CM & Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Gujarat and Dr. Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI AAYOG at Gandhinagar (Gujarat), today.

Calling the Summit as the aggregating ground of new ideas, thoughts and expression, the Union Health Minister stated “MoHFW endeavors to foster cross learning amongst the State Governments, NGOs, Healthcare organizations and other academic institutions so that these work in concordance to achieve the overarching public health goals.” Dr. Harsh Vardhan suggested that similar to the National NHM Summit, the States also can have State/Regional conferences for sharing of knowledge within the districts. “Let the national knowledge and ideas be transmitted to the districts level health workers, functionaries through the state/regional conferences”. He added that in addition to presenting best practices, states must also emulate and roll out the best practices from other states. He stressed the importance of self-auditing for performance assessment.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also highlighted the noteworthy achievements in the health sector during the past few years such as Ayushman Bharat, Telemedicine, NHP 2017, Medical Education, and Health Systems Strengthening.

Shri. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare appreciated the efforts made by the Centre and States to reach out to the beneficiaries and provide access to quality healthcare services. He said that “The Summit provides a valuable platform for sharing of knowledge and experiences. This will immensely contribute to meeting our health outcomes”. He also highlighted the initiatives taken for providing preventive, promotive, affordable and quality healthcare services including AYUSH services.

Dr. Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI AAYOG addressing the summit emphasized the importance of system level change for greater strides in healthcare and termed NHM as great program for healthcare delivery to the populace. He said ”There are seven building blocks for the future advances in the health sector- focused stewardship, adequate finance, capable HR, health commodities, service delivery which is equity & quality driven, information systems, and community participation for social and behavior change.”

The Summit saw the launch of SAANS campaign i.e. “Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully” to control Pneumonia. This campaign will mobilize people's for protecting and preventing children from pneumonia; and health personnel, governments & other stakeholders to prioritize treatment towards the control of Pneumonia — one of the most fatal childhood illnesses. Under the SAANS campaign, new interventions have been included like a child suffering from Pneumonia will be treated with pre-referral dose of Amoxicillin by ASHA; Pulse Oximeter will be used at the Health and Wellness Centre for identification of low oxygen levels in the blood and if required treated by use of Oxygen. The initiative also aims to create mass awareness about the most effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breast feeding, age appropriate complementary feeding, immunization, good quality air etc.

The web portal for home based care of children including newborn visited by ASHA, was also launched at the Summit. This portal has all the resource materials (training materials, IEC videos, audios, banners, posters etc.) for the home visits of ASHAs. The portal will also be used to monitor the progress of programs regarding home visits by ASHAs and referral of sick newborns, an intervention considered globally as game changer to improve child survival and also improve nutritional status and overall development of children.

The dignitaries also unveiled the Coffee Table Book documenting the Good and Replicable Practices presented during the Summit. Dr. Harsh Vardhan along with other dignitaries acknowledged the exemplary progress of States and Union Territories in key health indicators and programme areas by presenting them with awards for excellent performance.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI holds National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Healthcare Systems in India annually to recognize, showcase and document various best practices and innovations adopted by States and UTs for addressing their public health challenges and to improving their health outcomes though better implementation of programmes under National Health Mission (NHM). More than 300 participants attended the summit. At the summit 37 good practices were presented and 73 emerging good practices were showcased in the form of poster presentations.

Also present at the event were senior officers from MoHFW; State Health Secretaries and NHM MDs; Health Care Officers from almost all States and Union Territories along with Programme Officers, heads of Programme Divisions, MoHFW; Development Partners; Civil Society representatives and other healthcare organizations.

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