Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey at the meet on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 27: Medical facilities will reach every doorstep in the state soon. The state health department will ensure that through the Gram Swasthya Chetna Yatra programme that it launched on Thursday.

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, in a news meet, said the government will organise 10,000 camps in all 38 districts of the state under the initiative.

“At least 10 to 20 camps will be organised each day during the 32-day programme. Patients would get medical treatment at their doorsteps through these camps, which will be organised at 9,000 sub-centres and 1,100 additional primary health centres in the state. The health teams would also apprise the villagers of the various preventive measures that would help them in keeping ailments at bay. Chief minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the programme on Friday at Gandhi Maidan,” Choubey told the journalists present.

Principal secretary (health) Amarjeet Sinha said the villagers will be sensitised on the implementation of measures like rural health facilities, including the cash component of the social healthcare schemes. He said the health department is also seeking co-operation from other departments like social welfare, human resource development, public health engineering, panchayati raj and urban development to make the programme a success.

Choubey said a US-based firm has volunteered to donate a diagnosis machine, which can test a person for 20 different health indicators, to the camp. “We have been contacted by a US-based firm. They are willing to donate us a machine. It can test a person for 20 health indicators in just two minutes. If everything goes well, the equipment will be used at the camps,” said Choubey.

Choubey also said while a team of doctors and specialists would be deployed to conduct the health camps, patients with chronic illness will be referred to hospitals in the district or Patna for free treatment. “The camps are the first part of the Healthy Bihar campaign that we are going to launch. As part of the initiative, panchayat-level meets will be organised on issues like cleanliness and sanitation, ahead of the camps, and health workers will visit households to persuade people to attend these. The campaign would also see the participation of Ayush doctors, auxillary nurses and midwives, Asha and anganwadi workers. Health check-ups will be organised for school students apart from distributing leaflets on healthy lifestyle habits,” Choubey added.

Officials said various folk media will be used by the health department to raise awareness on health-related issues.

Sinha added that the state has seen a considerable improvement in the infant mortality rate. “The latest sample registration system report by the centre states that in 2009, the state’s IMR was 52 per 1,000, compared to 2008 when it was 56 per 1,000 births. It is a positive sign that our health indices are getting better. We are happy and want to keep on improving,” he said.