Uttar Pradesh to become second state after Karnataka to have state-specific health policy

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government is in the process of finalising the state’s first-ever state health policy and it is likely to be notified after the Cabinet’s approval in the next three months, an official said on Monday. Addressing a press conference after a day-long workshop on the policy draft, Principal Secretary, Health, Prashant Trivedi said that the government was now seized of various concerns and suggestions about the draft and after further deliberations, a policy would be finalised and put before the cabinet for approval. [caption id=“attachment_4285495” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] In doing so, Uttar Pradesh will become the second state after Karnataka to have its own health policy which was more workable and practical, he said, adding that the policy would be tailor-made for the state, as per its requirements and available resources. Among other suggestions that were deliberated in the workshop included raising a separate public health cadre, which was separate from the clinical cadre, associating nursing schools in all districts with hospitals, increasing the number of doctors, nurses, para-medical staff both in number and also quality, introduction and promotion of tele-medicine, establishing mobile medical units, availability of generic drugs and implementation of the existing policies, in favour of the patients.