Guwahati: Of the several health-related schemes run by Union Ministry of Health under National Health Mission (NHM), Assam has ranked among the top five states that performed well on various health system strengthening parameters of the NHM and will receive incentives. Besides Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Haryana, Kerala and Punjab were the states that performed well.
These 5 states will receive a fund of Rs 3000 crore as incentives from the NHM for performing well in the sector of health and family welfare.
It is to be noted that Assam has performed fair in terms of immunisation and dealing in mental illness and creating health awareness among the people of the state.
The incremental improvement as per the NITI Aayog ranking of states on ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ is one of the major conditionalities and has been given the highest weightage. Other parameters include operationalization of Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs), provisioning of mental health services in districts covered under the National Mental Health Program, Screening of 30 plus population Non Communicable Diseases, Implementation of Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and grading of Primary Health Centres (both Urban and rural) based on inputs and provision of the service package agreed.
At least 14 states and union territories were penalised under National Health Mission for not performing on various health parameters in 2018-19.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare based on result-based funding penalised states that will lose out on NHM funds for performance-linked conditionalities from the Central government.
According to the Health System Strengthening Conditionality Report (HSSCR) of states 2018-19 Bihar, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram remained the worst performers. According to a survey, these states have miserably failed in achieving minimum criteria of full immunisation of 75%.
West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar and Nagaland were penalised as they did not achieve the set benchmarks in the implementation of the Mental Health Programme and providing services as per programme guidelines.
Among the eight North-Eastern states, four could not meet the eligibility criteria. Of the remaining Assam, Tripura and Manipur earned incentives, the report stated.
