Tura: James P K Sangma, the Health & Family Welfare Minister, laid the foundation stone for the upgradation of the Kharkutta PHC to Community Health Centre (CHC) in North Garo Hills on Wednesday.
The minister said COVID-led challenges opened the eyes of the government to the need for better-equipped health infrastructures. “The need to shelter large numbers of patients, upgrade PHC to CHC, revamp sub-centres and strengthen these infrastructures has been the priority of the government in order to enable the people and the state for better health care services,” he said.
The health minister also said the government has resolved the issue of late payments to ASHA health workers.
About the shortage of medical doctors, especially specialists, Sangma said that an MoU has been signed with the Tamil Nadu government to facilitate the capacity building of medical professionals. The health minister also informed that the state soon would have its own medical college in Shillong.
He also informed that the government is also on the move to initiate a medicine procurement agency in order to address the problem of medicines shortages in the health centres.
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