Health Policy Issues and Health Programmes in ... - Amazon S3

Ayurveda and Unani Department and the Convergence of Services with the Health Department in UttaranchalFigure 1Organizational Structure of Ayurveda and UnaniDepartment in UttaranchalSecretary, Medical EducationStateDirector, Ayurveda and UnaniAdditional DirectorDeputy Director(Planning &Establishment)Deputy Director(Education & Research)Deputy Director(Plants & HerbsProcessing)DistrictRegional Ayurveda Medical OfficerFieldMedical Officer (Ayurveda)medical officers, working in either hospitals or dispensaries, and manages the implementationof the programme.Health Infrastructure of the Ayurveda and Unani DepartmentThe Ayurveda and Unani Department has 388 institutions providing ayurvedic and unani healthcare services in the state. This includes 386 health facilities and two ayurvedic medical collegeslocated in Hardwar district.As shown in Table 1, there are five 15-bed hospitals in the districts of Hardwar, Tehri Garhwal,Pauri Garhwal, and Uttarkashi, and 311 four-bed hospitals across all the districts in the state.The largest number of these hospitals is in Chamoli District, while the lowest number is inBageshwar District. All provide in-patient and out-patient care services. In addition, there are 70out-patient dispensaries (OPD), ranging from one in US Nagar to 27 in Tehri Garhwal. Only 19 ofthese centres are located in urban areas; the remaining 367 are in rural and remote areas. Thus,the ayurvedic and unani systems of medicine have had a significant presence in rural areas, withTehri Garhwal having the most institutions in rural areas.Most of the above-mentioned health institutions are located in rented buildings. As many as 53institutions are in government buildings, 297 in rented buildings, and 36 in donated buildings(Table 2).Human Resources in the Ayurveda and Unani DepartmentOf eight sanctioned positions at the directorate level, only the position of director has beenfilled. Of nine district-level positions for regional medical officers to supervise dispensaries,only two positions have been filled. Although Uttaranchal has about 602 medical officers, only391 of these positions are sanctioned. * In addition, positions for two lab assistants, 67* At present Uttaranchal has more than the sanctioned number of medical officers and the surplusmedical officers are supposed to be transferred to the parent state Uttar Pradesh.235