Following Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's directive to make universal clinical care under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana more accessible to the general public, the Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Shalini Pandit, directed Superintendents of all government medical colleges and hospitals (MCHs) to strengthen their respective help desk systems.
"Learning from COVID-19 showed that informing the attendants/relatives about the patients' updated health condition was of crucial importance for mitigating their anxiety," said Shalini Pandit issuing directions to medical colleges on Thursday, November 17. She also added that such a system would also "be quite helpful to the relatives, attendants of the patients in ICU, HDU of government MCHs where access of others is restricted," stated a report by ANI.
An official statement stated that the Superintendents of MCHs were given instructions to nominate one Senior Nursing Officer as Swasthya Sanjoak to regularise the operation of the helpdesks. Pandit made it clear that the Nursing Officer with the right attitude and skills could be proposed for the position. "Swasthya Sanajoak will act as a link between the hospital and patients' family/attendants' for dissemination of updated information about treatment and health condition of the indoor patients," stated the official statement, as reported by ANI.
The statement also said that, "It may be pertinent to mention that earlier government had engaged Swasthya Sahayaks in all the private hospitals empanelled under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) for facilitating cashless treatment to poor patients enrolled under BSKY. As of now, these Swasthya Sahayaks are operating in 402 privately empanelled hospitals in different districts of the State. The system functioned well as the number of patients getting cashless treatment in private hospitals showed a constant increase. With dedicated Swasthya Sanjojak in Govt MCHs, felt-need of the people would be met thereby providing a fillip to the universal health care under BSKY," as reported by ANI.