‘Swathya Sanjojak’ To Strengthen Help Desks At MCHs In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: To strengthen help desks in every state-run medical college and hospital (MCH), the Odisha government has instructed the superintendent of the institution to identify a senior nursing officer, who would be assigned the task of ‘Swathya Sanjojak’.

The Health Department has also issued guidelines to the medical college authorities in this regard.

The decision was taken for better dissemination of updated information on the condition and treatment of the parents to their respective family members. ‘Swasthya Sanjojak’, who would be deployed from the existing manpower, would act as a link between the hospital and the patient’s family and attendant, an official notification said.

According to official sources, Health and Family Welfare Secretary Shalini Pandit has directed Superintendents of all government MCHs to strengthen help desk system in their respective institutions.

“Learning from Covid-19 showed that informing the attendants/relatives about the patients’ updated health condition was of crucial importance for mitigating their anxiety,” she said.

Such system would also be quite helpful to the relatives and attendants of the patients in ICU/HDU of government MCHs where access of others is restricted, Pandit said.

The Superintendents of MCHs were directed to regularise functioning of the help desks by nominating one Senior Nursing Officer as Swasthya SanjaJoka.

The Health Secretary made it clear that the Nursing Officer having suitable attitude and aptitude might be nominated for the purpose.

Swasthya Sanjojaka “will act as a link between the hospital and patients’ family and attendants” for dissemination of updated information about treatment and health condition of the indoor patients.

It may be pertinent to mention here that earlier the 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 private empanelled hospitals in different districts of the State. The system functioned well as number of patients getting cashless treatment in private hospitals showed constant increase.