IEP Chandigarh, April 17
Continuing his strenuous efforts to realise the dream of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab a healthy state, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh made a surprise visit at the Directorate Health and Family Welfare office to take stock of the various ongoing health programmes and to put the health machinery of the state in a smooth functioning order. The Health Minister, while holding a meeting with the state program officers, instructed them to ensure delivery of quality healthcare services upto the last man in the queue. He held detailed deliberations for more than three hours with the state health officials in order to streamline the working of the health department. Dr Balbir Singh asked officials to come up with innovative plans so that along with providing healthcare services, the well being of the people can also be taken care of. He suggested some structural changes in various programs to make them more people friendly and directed the officials to make amendments in a time bound manner to make sure that health services reach the targeted beneficiaries. While addressing the officers, the Health Minister stressed on preventive aspects of health as many of the modern day diseases are owing to bad lifestyle habits adopted by the people. He exhorted health officers to promote Yoga, Meditation, besides inculcating other preventive and healthy lifestyle habits to prevent people from contagious and non-contagious diseases. He also sought a detailed status report of vacant positions including Doctors in the department from the Director Health and Family Welfare Dr Adarshpal Kaur, so that recruitment process can be started to fill the vacancies at the earliest. He reiterated that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government is committed to impart world-class healthcare facilities in Punjab. Giving a loud and clear message, Dr Balbir Singh said that he will not tolerate corruption at any level. He also asked concerned officials to expedite the delivery of services to the public, while ensuring that common people should not face any difficulty in getting services especially pertaining to issuance of death and birth registration certificates or any late entry thereof, medical reimbursements. The Minister also visited the Outbreak cell in the office and commended Dr Adarshpal Kaur for the efficient working of the cell. He also instructed the state officials to be prepared to tackle any possible upsurge of Covid-19 cases and to ensure all necessary equipment and medicines are in place. The Minister exhorted all the health officials to work in a coordinated manner. Director Health Services (FW) Dr Ravinderpal Kaur, Director Health Services(ESI) Dr. Seema, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and Program Officers were among the other officials who were present in the meeting.
