The government move comes after surveys revealed that denizens of several municipalities were deprived of minimum healthcare facilities.[break] Despite the presence of sophisticated hospitals in the Kathmandu metropolis and other municipalities, people living in slum areas and poor settlements have no access to health services.
"More than 50% of the people living in the slums said they have never heard about free healthcare service," Senior Public Health Administrator at the Primary Healthcare Revitalization Division (PHRD) Achyut Lamichhane said. PHRD estimates that only 35 to 50 percent of the post-natal women and children in municipalities get the minimum healthcare facilities like immunization and vitamin-A supplements.
"About half of the children in city slums are deprived of immunization," Lamichhane added. In contrast, according to PHRD, 80% of the people living in the villages get primary healthcare facilities.
Every year thousands of people enter Kathmandu Valley and other urban areas in search of work. The government is unaware about the exact population of the children and pregnant mothers in the Valley. "We don´t have any official data about the child population of the Valley," he revealed.
"We will provide training to 2,638 new Female Community Health Volunteers. More than 1,300 others already working under municipalities will also get the training and will be entitled to the benefits FCHVs get," he said.
Lamichhane said that PHRD has allocated budget for training, uniform, and also for the social security allowances to the FCHVs. "They will get the training at the District Public Health Office and the premises of the municipalities within the second quarter of the current fiscal year," he said.
The government has not yet deployed FCHVs in the municipalities as they themselves hire women as health volunteers. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has employed 375 female volunteers. Chief of the Health Department of KMC Dr Baburam Gautam said that KMC employs around 600 additional women during immunization campaigns.
PHRD also plans to build some more urban health clinics in the municipalities. The PHRD has demanded proposals from municipalities and is willing to bear 50% of the expenses incurred in building these clinics. "Bharatpur municipality has already expressed interest to build two urban health clinics, but we have asked them to submit written proposal," Lamichanne said. He revealed that four such clinics will be built in Kathmandu metropolis in the current fiscal year.
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