PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE IN MANAGEMENT,
PUBLIC HEALTH & HEALTH SECTOR REFORMS FOR
DISTRICT LEVEL MEDICAL
OFFICERS
AN
EFFORT TOWARDS CAPACITY BUILDING IN THE COUNTRY
FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF (NRHM) HEALTH & FAMILY
WELFARE PROGRAMMES
The
Republic of India as a participant
of the said conference initiated the process of implementing
reforms in health & family welfare sector in 1996-97. Following the
comprehensive resolution emanating out of ICPD, Cairo,
1994. The
Department of Family Welfare, MOHFW, GOI in close
collaboration with the European Commission, embarked upon the
H&FW Sector investment programme in some selected
districts of India to start with
in 1997.
Situation analysis in the H&FW sector with a view
to formulate the appropriate district action plans was given
prime importance.
As the operations progressed it was found out that as
far as the Government sector was concerned, operationally, the
Chief Medical Officers at district level enjoyed the nodal
status in respect of health care delivery services supported
by Deputy CMOs and respective Programme Officers. Within a few years
after induction into service, the prospective incumbents
usually get promotion to higher berths, but more often than
not find themselves amidst administrative indecision, because
of considerable lack of proficiency, related to management
aspects of health care services like General Management, Human
Resource Management, Financial Management, Materials
Management, Disciplinary /Vigilance matters and more
importantly the management of on-going projects related to
health and communication which are not taught in the medical
colleges. Besides skills like objective measurements of unmet
needs in the communities through techniques like PLA, FGD and
computer aided solutions for problems were also needed, so
that the over all return on investment in health sector was
commensurate with inputs. These shortcomings were also pointed
out in the National Health Policy 2002.
Thus,
the Govt. of India in consultation with the respective State
Governments started implementing the reform process within the
country in a phased manner and capacity building of district
level officers was a part of it. This was reinforced in a
landmark national resolve, at the eighth conference of Central
Council of Health & Family Welfare held in New Delhi
(28th-29th August 2003), where it was
unanimously resolved that “the professional training of
Medical Officers in 12-16 years service bracket in Public
Health, Management and Health Sector Reforms, should be made a
pre-requisite for promotion to CMOs/ Civil Surgeons/Hospital
Superintendents to equip them to handle their responsibilities
better”.
NIHFW
was identified as the institute to conduct the course and
first was held in 2001.
During the pilot stages, the European Commission
Technical Assistance (ECTA) office engaged experts from Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai to evaluate the outcome
of first 3 pilot courses conducted at NIHFW. The observations
of the experts who conducted the evaluation, submitted to the
Department of Family Welfare, Govt. of India vindicated the
usefulness of the course.
Since
training so many DMOs is a mammoth task, the training has
been rolled out and is being conducted by other institutes
(given below) of the country since 2005. In the coming
years senior district level medical officers are expected
to be trained after a service period of between 12-16 years,
for higher-level administrative posts. This course in time
is envisaged as a regular refresher-training course for
middle level medical officers with 12-16 years of experience
in the state government services for each state.
Click
to View the List of PDC Trained Participants in the country
as on May 22, 2008
The
NRHM components in respect of the goals are,decentralization
& devolution, performance linked funding, sustainability
of infrastructure/ work force, community participation,
user-friendly care and public – private partnership. To fulfill thesehealth
care personnel therefore have to now act as “Agents of Change” to
ensure availability/accessibility/affordability
of products & services, offered as integral part of
the on-going Health & Family Welfare reform programmes
under NRHM in the country.
To
achieve this capacity building of the Medical Officers, so
that a critical mass of trained personnel are available in the
districts, more institutes in the states are in the process of
being identified to make this professional development course
a comprehensive capacity building exercise. Gradually as NRHM is being
implemented with the block as the node for all activities,
block level medical officers will be given this training to
effectively implement NRHM.
Click
to View Introductory Document of 9th PDC -July 2007
Click
to View the Final Report of the 9th PDC held in NIHFW
