Guwahati, Sept. 12: The Assam government will carry out an inspection of health centres and hospitals across the state in January, akin to the one conducted in primary schools in April this year.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the Assembly this morning that officials of his department would visit hospitals to take stock of the existing facilities and identify the areas for improvement.

"Unlike Gunotsav, in which the standard of education was assessed in primary schools, officials of the health department will take stock of the infrastructure and manpower, such as number of doctors, nurses and support staff, stocks of medicines, ambulances and other facilities, in health centres.

The team will identify the areas which need upgrade, including buildings, and accordingly steps will be taken by the government," Sarma said while replying to questions by BPF legislator Rabiram Narzary.

"After Gunotsav, we discussed having a similar programme to improve our hospitals and the Centre agreed in principal to support such a drive. We hope the drive will help us identify the gaps in our healthcare system and improve them," he said.

Under Gunotsav, ministers, MLAs and government officials visited primary schools and evaluated the standard of education. The education department is now working on improving education in the schools where the standard of education was found to be poor.

Replying to a question by AIUDF legislator Aminul Islam on posts in model hospitals, Sarma said the department had created 1,497 different posts for 65 model hospitals on July 28 and the process for creation of other posts was under way.

"Of the 116 model hospitals approved by the government, 65 have started functioning while the rest are under construction. During the current financial year, posts will be created for health sub-centres which have been upgraded into public health centres," the minister said.

Sarma said requests for creation of another 3,210 posts for 165 public health centres and 50 riverine hospitals was pending. All posts are likely to be created by March next year.

Replying to a question by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed, Sarma said the health department was working to repair health centres damaged by flood and erosion in the riverine areas.

"Detailed reports about damaged health centres in the riverine areas have been sought from district health officers. Boat clinics have been pressed into service to provide healthcare facilities for sar (riverine) dwellers," he said.

The step to make health centres accessible assumes significance in view of largescale complaints about poor quality of service in government hospitals across the state and lack of sufficient doctors and equipment.

Poor healthcare facilities in tea gardens and the riverine areas have been identified as a major reason for high infant and maternal mortality rates in the state.