Nagaland Debriefing of 17th CRM held in Kohima

A debriefing program of the 17th Common Review Mission (CRM) , National Health Mission was held on November 7 at the Conference Hall of Hotel Vivor, Kohima.
The main aim of the Common Review Mission (CRM) is to carry out a rapid assessment of implementation of the NHM and its key strategies, priority areas and analyze the challenges with respect to health system strengthening.
Presenting the team’s findings, National Urban Health Mission Division, MoHFW, New Delhi, deputy commissioner, Dr. Sushil Kumar Vimal shared that during their six-day visit to Nagaland, the team visited 12 health facilities in Zunheboto and 13 in Mon, including the District hospitals.
He appreciated the strong community engagement in the State’s health sector, acknowledging the active role of CBOs, faith-based organizations, NGOs, and village leaders in contributing to infrastructure, equipment, and maintenance of health units.
He noted that while the State had adequate health services, infrastructure gaps remained a major challenge. Despite difficult geographical terrain, most places being hard to reach, difficult road condition, lack of mobile and internet connectivity, healthcare workers continued to deliver essential services with dedication.
He also highlighted several good practices, including motivated healthcare providers, bio-medical waste management, CMHIS coverage for citizens of all citizens not covered under AB- PMJAY, Cough Against TB app, environment sustainability through solar power and all pregnant women being screened for hepatitis till Sub-center level.
Their findings also showed an irrational posting of Human Resource (HR), need for more training of the paramedical manpower, delay in release of salaries due to late fund received from MoHFW as a result of delay in compliance to DoE conditionality (SNA –SPARSH) and lack of willingness of health workers to work in interior and hard-to- reach areas. The team also recommended for development of a comprehensive HR policy, to explore incentivizing manpower in hard-to-reach areas, to work on decreasing the out-of –pocket expenditure of the beneficiaries and drug storage.
In his concluding remarks, Health & Family Welfare, GoN, commissioner & secretary, Anoop Khinchi, commended the CRM team’s dedication during their monitoring visits to the two districts. He urged the State to adopt the team’s recommendations as a SoP for all districts. He emphasized the need of capacity building and training as the base of a strong health system, and rational HR being in place.
He also acknowledged the recommendation to incentivize health workers and stressed adherence to National Quality Assurance Standards for quality healthcare. Finally, he appealed to officials to make health & wellness centers more vibrant and to use the CRM findings to improve the State’s healthcare delivery system.
The program was chaired by National Health Mission (NHM), Nagaland, mission director, Dr. Keveduyi Theyo, who stated that the Department welcomed the CRM team’s findings and recommendations and would work on the highlighted shortcomings to move forward. Vote of thanks was delivered by DoHFW, principal director, Dr. Mereninla Senlem.