Health experts and development activists in Rajshahi unanimously viewed that integrated efforts of all government and non- government entities concerned has become crucial to ensuring health and family planning services to the marginal population, reports BSS.
They mentioned that the present government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working relentlessly to ensure health and family planning services to all.
So, all the field level public and private organizations working in this field should supplement the government endeavor through discharging their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty. They came up with the observation while addressing a daylong “District Level Coordination Meeting on health system strengthening among Directorate General of Health Services, Directorate General of Family Planning and SRC- DASCOH” in the city on Thursday.
DASCOH Foundation organized the meeting under its ‘Public Health Improvement Initiative Rajshahi (PHIIR)’ Project in association with Swiss Red Cross (SRC) in its training room. Some 35 persons including the divisional and district level health and family planning officials and other stakeholders from Rajshahi and Naogaon districts attended the meeting. Divisional Director of Department of Family Planning Shafiqul Islam, Divisional Director of Health Services Dr Gopendra Nath Acharya and SRC Health Manager Dr Farhana Akhter addressed the meeting as resource persons while DASCOH Field Operation Head Fakhrul Bashar moderated the discussion. Deputy Directors of Department of Family Planning Dr Nasim Akhter and Dr Kustary Amina Queen and DASCOH Training Team Leader Ishrat Jahan also spoke.
Documentation and Advocacy Officer Sohel Rana, Monitoring and Evaluation Team Leader Reazul Karim and Health Project Officer Sabita Bulbuli Mallik illustrated the outcomes of the PHIIR Project along with its lesson learnt and way forward in their issue-based concept paper presentations.
The meeting was told that the PHIIR project is being implemented in 73 community clinics, 22 Union Health and Family Welfare Centres and five Upazila Health Complexes in Rajshahi and Naogaon districts with the main thrust of improving health status at primary health care and mother, neonatal and child health.
Shafiqul Islam called for infusing more dynamism into the essential service delivery activities of community clinics for ensuring healthcare services to the marginalized communities for their betterment.
In his remarks, Dr Gopendra Nath Acharya stressed the need for boosting coordination between the works of government and non-government organizations concerned so that the grassroots people can derive total benefits of the community clinics and other upazila and village level health and family planning institutions.