The 2nd North East Healthcare Summit PDF Print“The 2nd North East Healthcare Summit” stresses on collaboratively strengthening health systems amongst all North-eastern States to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
With an aim to strengthen health systems and explore emergent avenues and platforms for collaboration between various agencies and stakeholders in the north-east region, the 2nd North East Health Care Summit 2017 was organized by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in partnership with the Ministry of Development of the North East Region (MDoNER), the Government of Sikkim and the Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital (STNM) on the 8th and 9th September, 2017.
The summit was inaugurated by Mr. Arjun Kumar Ghatani, Hon’ble Minister, Healthcare, Human Services and Family Welfare, Sikkim along with Mr. PD Rai, Member of Parliament from Sikkim. Also present on the occasion were Mr. Alok Kumar Srivastav, Chief Secretary, Sikkim, Dr K Bhandari, Director-General-cum Secretary Health, Sikkim, Mr Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, Vice President PHFI, Dr KB Gurung, Medical Superintendent STNM Hospital along with a host of senior government health officials from all the north eastern states of India.
In his address the Mr. Arjun Kumar Ghatani, Hon’ble Minister, Healthcare, Human Services and Family Welfare, Sikkim, congratulated the organisers – PHFI, STNM Hospital and DoNER for organizing the second edition of the North East Healthcare Summit in Sikkim that highlights key issues in today’s evolving healthcare scenario pertinent to Northeastern parts of India.
“Health records and parameters in Sikkim are the best amongst us northeastern states, for which I would congratulate our Chief Minister for his visionary leadership because of which the government-backed Comprehensive Annual and Total Check-up for Healthy Sikkim (CATCH Sikkim) now reaches out to people even in the remotest areas of the state. But poor healthcare services in the Northeast and the need to enhance manpower, including setting up of more medical colleges in the region the requirement of the day. There is an urgent need to review the progress of schemes sanctioned by centre or the NEC towards the improvement of healthcare services in the region, especially infrastructure, in addition to finding out better ways and means to remove health problems and inaccessibility to quality healthcare especially in rural areas of the region.”
Mr Ghatani also appealed to the attending delegates especially attending health officials from other north east states and other organizations to work towards the improvement of healthcare services in the this region, and come-up with a time bound whitepaper which can be implemented immediately.
This year’s 2nd Northeast Healthcare summit concentrated on emerging health concerns in the region with a special emphasis on the current scenario in North East and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The themes for this year’s summit were:
- Mental Health & Substance Abuse
- Non-Communicable Diseases
- Health Policy
- Service Delivery & Health Systems Strengthening
- Environmental Health
One the sidelines of the summit, a Healthcare Media interactive workshop was conducted as a pre-cursor to the Summit, that provided media with nuances of healthcare criticalities and development in the state, and the Northeastern region so that press reporting on health issues can be strengthened and acknowledged actively in publications.
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Media Coverage
The Summit received good media coverage which was not only covered in local newspapers, but was also covered well in all the other 7 North East states of India, apart from getting national media coverage. Doordarshan NE, Zee News NE, ANI News covered the summit under their prime time along with a few channels from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Below are glimpses of media coverage and a table of national and online coverages received till date. The Summit also had a good social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
