Bureau
Chandigarh : The 5 day Executive Leadership Program organised by Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh in collaboration with National Taiwan university from 5th to 10th February 2023 successfully trained 12 senior officials from National Health Mission, Uttarakhand including the Dr. Vinita Shah, Director General Health Services and Dr. Saroj Naithani, Mission Director, NHM, Uttarakhand.
This flagship program is first of its kind leadership program in health sector in India designed for senior health officials in which the senior officials of different states visit neighbouring countries and learn the good and replicable practices in health sector, said Dr Sonu Goel, Program Director and Professor at Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh. This program was specially designed in collaboration with National Taiwan University, Taiwan from 5th to 10th February 2023 with an aim of overall improvement of various national health programs in the state, of Uttarakhand said Dr. Goel.
Dr. Vinita Shah , Director General Health services, Uttarakhand, one of the delegates of the program expressed her gratitude to PGIMER Chandigarh for organising such vital program in health sector covering the significant topics including the community-based health promotion and injury prevention, diabetes shared care network, BMI control program, non-communicable disease risk factor control program, tuberculosis control and impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis, emergency care network in rural area, the ambulance drill, and surveillance of emerging infectious diseases. She said that these programs will help state in replication of best practices learnt in Taiwan in state of Uttarakhand.
During the visit to 8 eminent institutes, the officials had interactions with eminent faculty of the National Taiwan University, Environmental Protection Administration, Health Promotion Administration, National Health insurance Administration, Tobacco control institute, Cancer prevention institute, Taiwan centres for Disease Control ,Centre of Public Health and Emergency care network, which were the top level departments in health sector in Taiwan. A special field visit to a remote rural settings Yunlin city was undertaken to learn on-the-ground health care practices in hard to reach areas.
As a part of the course all the delegates developed an action plan which will replicated in 6 month duration post program in their districts and state. Dr. Saroj Naithani, Mission Director, NHM, Uttarakhand expressed her commitment towards working in major replicable areas highlighted during the exposure visit. The reach of remote people through telehealth facility, adaptation of digital tools in medical services, video based counselling of tuberculosis patients, media room for communicable diseases in all districts, Integrated emergency management system will be sone of key areas on which we will work upon, said Dr. Naithani.
These programs has given insights to new ideas to senior officials of various states along with improving their leadership and management capacity for addressing public health challenges and boosting organisational effectiveness in resource-constrained environments, Dr Kritika Upadhyay, Course Coordinator.
‘This flagship program in public health is conducted under the broad umbrella of International Public Health Management Development Program being conducted by PGIMER Chandigarh, where over 1000 international participants from 161 ITEC countries in Asia, Africa, East Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific and Small Island countries have been trained in India over the last 6 years. The program believes in ancient Indian philosophy ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’ i.e. world is one family, wherein we are trying to build South- South development cooperation along with solid foundation and relationships with neighbouring countries, said Dr Goel