BHUBANESWAR: Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is the fundamental right of every citizen in the country and all States must ensure that essential health services including skilled yet affordable medical personnel are accessible to one and all, Director of Chhattisgarh State Health Resource Centre Dr Prabir Chatterjee said here on Saturday.
Addressing a panel discussion on the occasion of UHC Day held at Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCCDS), Chatterjee said in order to give an impetus to medical services in remote pockets of the State, skill development training for ground level health workers, midwives and pharmacists should be a basic practice. Though health indicators of the State have improved, the infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and malaria-related deaths are higher than the national average, NCCDS Director Prof Srijit Mishra said.
Health Activist Jagannath Chatterjee said Odisha having the second highest proportion of scheduled caste and tribal people in the country, there continues to be significant difference in the socio-economic conditions.
In most of the southern and western districts, inaccessibility, social disparities and shortage of skilled health workers have been a major impediment in medical service delivery, he added.
Almost 70 per cent of infant deaths take place in the first month of child’s life largely due to preventable causes. Low skill level of medical and paramedical staff pose a major challenge for quality service delivery, he said.