Shillong, April 7: Meghalaya governor, V. Shanmuganathan today asked the state health authorities to identify ailing mothers in the state, especially pregnant women, and provide them with adequate healthcare to help reduce infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate.

The governor made this appeal after he paid a visit to the civil hospital here where he interacted with the patients, inquiring about their health and the medical treatment they received. The visit was a part of the World Health Day celebrations today.

Stressing the need to take measures to arrest the rise of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, the governor suggested adoption of villages for providing proper healthcare to the people, including the mothers and pregnant women, as well as conduct a survey to identify the number of such suffering women so that maternal and infant mortality rates could be reduced drastically.

The governor, after visiting Shillong civil hospital, went to Ganesh Das Hospital at Lawmali here later in the afternoon.

His visit to the two main government-run hospitals in the state capital assumes importance in the wake of lack of medical facilities being provided to the people of the state, including the problem related to medicines as on many occasions. The patients admitted to government-run hospitals have to purchase medicines from pharmacies outside at their own expense because of non-availability of medicines in the hospitals.

The governor visited the ultrasound section, male medical and surgical wards, female surgical ward and oncology ward in the Shillong civil hospital.

At Ganesh Das Hospital, he visited the private ward, post-natal ward and paediatrics ward and interacted with the patients. He inquired about their health and the treatment received from the medical staff and wished them speedy recovery.

The governor was accompanied by the minister for health and family welfare, A. L. Hek, officers of the state health department and medical staff. This year, the theme of World Health Day was, "Beat Diabetes-Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and entrance surveillance".

To mark the occasion, various programmes were organised, including free blood sugar test at Shillong civil hospital and free diabetes and anaemia screening at Ganesh Das Hospital besides distribution of fruits packets to patients by the governor and other dignitaries.