The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) is one of the flagship programmes of the National Health Mission (NHM) of the Government of India implemented through Health and Family Welfare Department, Government Odisha.
It is an initiative to improve child survival and quality of life through a systemic approach to early identification of 4Ds such as defects at birth, diseases, deficiencies and developmental delays, including disabilities in children from 0 to 18 years of age.
This ensures free management and treatment including surgical interventions at tertiary level through dedicated Mobile Health Teams (MHTs) at block levels.
Major tasks of RBSK MHT include screening of 4Ds of young children between 0 and18 years in Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) twice a year, Government School once a year and residential school, quarterly once.
The District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) has registered 3,346 cases of 4Ds, mostly birth deficiencies and developmental delay cases excluding 68 adolescent and 129 other cases. The achievement of treatment for 4Ds is 72 per cent. DEIC has facilitated successful operation of 38 cleft and palate, 10 burn contracture, 44 cataract, 47 Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) and 38 club foot cases, besides, 46 cases of CT scan, glaucoma, rye deformity, hernia, myofibroma, etc. These kinds of tertiary facilities were availed from premiere health institutions namely the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Hitech Medical College, Bhubaneswar, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, LV Prasad Eye Institute(LVPEI), Bhubaneswar, Satya Sai Heart Hospitals, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Apollo Hospitals, NIRTAR, Olatapur, Sahid Laxman Nayak Hospital and Medical College, Capital Hospital, etc.
The District Health Mission under the leadership of Collector Pramod Kumar Behera, CDMO Saktibrata Mohanty and District Project Manager (DPM) Rajesh Pattanaik is thus actualizing the health strategy in a mission mode.
There are 11 blocks in Rayagada. While with two MHTs per block, the district is supposed to have 22 MHTs; but as per the information of Rajesh Pattanaik, District Programme Manager, NHM, there are only 14 MHTs in position and out of this only 12 are functioning. Hence only 55 per cent of MHTs are functioning. An MHT is supposed to have one male Ayush doctor, one female Ayush doctor, an ANM and a pharmacist. Accordingly, these functioning MHTs should have 60 staff. Unfortunately there are only 26 staffs making it to only 43 per cent. If the whole district is taken into account, it is a mere 24 per cent.
