ROURKELA: Two teams of the common review mission (CRM) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) are inspecting government health institutions in Sundargarh and assessing the implementation of different health schemes.
The delegations are on a four-day visit to the district. Sources in the Health department informed that as per CRM mechanism, two districts are randomly taken up for review and concurrent evaluation of health sector in Odisha annually. This year, Rayagada and Sundargarh have been selected.
The teams started field reviews from Friday after a briefing by Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan and chief district medical and public health officer Dr SK Mishra at Sundargarh town. The CRM teams comprising officers from health and finance wings along with consultants and activists from NITI Aayog, WHO, National Health System Resource Centre, are being led by MoHFW Joint Director Raghuram Rao.
On the first day, the teams visited Spiriluna Chikki manufacturing unit and different health institutions and associated facilities including the district headquarters hospital and Covid hospital at Sundargarh town. On Saturday, health institutions in Tangarpali, Subdega, Lefripada, Bargaon and Rajgangpur blocks were covered.
The teams visited Rourkela government hospital, six urban primary health centres at Rourkela, Bonai sub-divisional hospital and community health centres at Bisra and primary health centre at Lathikata on Sunday. The CRM members would wrap up their visit after a debriefing at Sundargarh collectorate on Monday, informed Mishra.
During field inspection, the teams focused on all aspects of healthcare delivery, status of implementation of schemes under the National Health Mission (NHM) and State government, assessment of utilisation of funds and availability of resources. Sources said the CRM primarily focuses on expenditure done from Central funds including NHM.
Reliable sources informed that so far, more than Rs 250 crore have been spent on Covid management in the district since beginning of the pandemic. These funds were pooled from different State and Central government sources, while a sizable expenditure was incurred from the district mineral foundation (DMF).