Shillong Jan 25: The Meghalaya government has taken up an initiative to address the perpetual shortage of specialist doctors in Meghalaya by launching the “Design and Adoption of Alternate models for Responding to address shortage of medical specialists in Meghalaya” (ADARSH).

The provisional signing of MoU and a workshop was conducted between the State government and Public Health Foundation of India and Indian Institutes of Public Health on December 7, 2018 in the presence of Additional Chief Secretary, P W Ingty, Health Secretary cum Mission Director NHM Pravin Bakshi, Directors of Health Services (MI, MCH and Research),Meghalaya, Prof Sanjay Zodpey, Vice President (Academics), PHFI-NewDelhi and Prof Sandra Albert, Director IIPH-Shillong.

On Friday, the final signing and handing of the MoU between the State Government and Public Health Foundation of India took place in the presence of Minister of Health and Family Welfare, A L Hek and Additional Chief Secretary, P. W. Ingty.

The ADARSH project is an attempt to design and scale-up alternate models for responding tothe critical shortage of medical specialists in the state to train doctors in the public sector. The College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) model is an alternative model that will be adopted in Meghalaya. PHFI/IIPH will work closely with the Government of India, State Governments, the CPS and other stakeholders to facilitate specialist doctors strengthening in the public sector. Large District Hospitals will be leveraged for specialist doctors training. This is in keeping with the National Health Policy 2017 and aMoH&FW Steering Committee for advocating scaling-up of specialist training options like that of the CPS in district hospital.

The project will increase the number of specialists in the state through adoption of alternate model for responding to the critical shortage of medical specialists at FRUs, CHCs,Sub District Hospitals and District Hospitals for providing patient centred secondary health care services. The participating District Hospitals will witness a strengthening of their capital infrastructure as well as the staffing of specialists. It is hoped that the presence of Post-Graduate trainees around the year in a hospital will have a domino effect that may lead to better services and higher utilization.