HYDERABAD: Telangana Education department along with State Health department announced that 30 lakh school children would be screened for health conditions from next academic year. However, officials from the Health department said that their actual target is 60 lakh children and half of them had already been screening under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). While the screening is underway, health experts stressed that treatment of the children who tested positive for health conditions and their follow-up treatment is crucial.
Currently, officials said, eight out of ten District Early Intervention Centres (DEIC), are functional in the State and they received permission for 12 more such centres. Each DEIC has 13 members including doctors from some specialisations such as paediatrics, dental, physiotherapy, and medical officers, social worker.
From around November of 2016, around 300 mobile teams started to screen school children for 30 health conditions under RBSK. Each team has two medical officers, one pharmacist and one ANM, whose only job is to implement the programme. Around 17 lakh children were diagnosed with health conditions, and 2,000 surgeries were performed.
Programme officer for RBSK-Telangana, Dr Hirnmai said that if a child is tested positive for a health condition, they are referred to District Early Intervention Centres (DEIC) or government District hospital for confirmation of the condition and treatment.
And if any surgery is needed, based on complexity of the problem, they are referred to government tertiary hospitals, district hospitals, Community Health Centres where basic operations are taken up or hospitals empanelled under Aarogyasri Health scheme. The health workers take children to the hospitals in their vans once a month.
Assistant professor at Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) Dr Suresh Munuswamy said that it is important to follow-up a child (diagnosed with a health condition), till the point his or her life becomes better.
“When it is said that the children will be referred to hospitals, first question is, are there any health centres near the child’s home because some conditions require life-long commitment on behalf of government health systems and parents. Secondary and tertiary hospitals in Telangana are good in some districts, but not primary care centre and if the children are referred to these centres, there is no point. Apart from accessibility, following up a case in important,” Dr Suresh said, adding that accessibility to Health Centre is also important.
In case of complex surgeries such as those related to heart, are referred to Aarogyasri empanelled hospitals. However, all details from screening, treatment and surgery performed, are available in manual records.
“By end of this month, we will bring in a software which has all details of a child’s case,” Dr Hiranmai said.