Taking another step towards better healthcare services, National Health Mission J&K today launched the Bio Medical Equipment Management & Maintenance Programme (BEMMP) in the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.The programme was launched by Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo who was Chief Guest at the launch ceremony.The FC, while launching the program, said that the biomedical equipment management was the need of the hour to improve the patient care facilities in the health care institutions.Highlighting the objectives of the program, Dulloo said that the program is designed in a way that the equipments in the district level health care facility will have an uptime of 95%, in sub-district hospital 90% and in PHC 80%.He said the service provider is responsible for mapping the entire inventory of equipment in healthcare facilities and said that they have almost completed 80% of the work. He also said that has to repair the faulty (if any) equipment in all the health care institutes of J&K and Ladakh within 4 months and said that the program is valid for 5 years.He also said that any complaint on the centralised call centre provided by Service provider regarding the faulty equipment has to be set right by it within 7 days and said that if it fails there is a provision for penalty.
Dullo also said that the Service provider will place bio-medical engineers in health care institutions for timely and efficient management of the program. He also called upon all the authorities in their respective hospitals and other health care institutes that they should see that no equipment remains dysfunctional. He sought cooperation from MSs, CMOs, BMOs so that the program runs smoothly for uninterrupted patient care.Highlighting the importance of program, Dulloo informed that mapping and tagging of various bio-medical equipment in the different healthcare facilities, upto PHC level in JKL has been completed and now onward Service provider Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd shall ensure regular maintenance of all these equipments, supported through 24/7 call centre as per terms and conditions of the agreement.Mission Director National Health Mission, J&K Bhupinder Kumar said that the maintenance of equipment has remained a persistent challenge throughout the country and said that with the launch of BEMMP the health sector will get strengthened to ensure proper health care services in the hospitals.He informed that as per the directions of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the BEMMP is being implemented in various healthcare facilities upto PHC level in J&K and Ladakh through Service provider Hyderabad. He informed that the financial support for the program is provided by MoH&FW under National Health Mission.Seeking cooperation from the end users, Kumar said that all Medical Superintendents, CMOs, BMOs and designated Nodal Officers should use this golden opportunity for improving health care facilities. He said that the programme will bring a paradigm shift in patient care and will also bring a lot of efficiency in health service providers.Programme Manager JK-BEMMP, NHM, J&K, Massarat Iqbal in his welcome address termed the launch as a remarkable occasion and said that this will go a long way in ensuring trouble free patient care in the health care institutions.Divisional Nodal Officer, Jammu, NHM Dr. Harjeet Rai presented the vote of thanks.