5 health dists form monitoring panel
KOLKATA: Health department formed a district-level committee in five health districts comprising four members with the chief medical officer of health (CMoH) in the district as its chairperson to ensure that “Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act,1971” is properly implemented.
The committee will monitor the activities of the private health establishments and grant, suspend or cancel the ‘certificate of approval’ depending on their observation. The main objective of the committee is to supervise whether private clinical establishments are implementing the provisions laid down by “Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act,1971”.
The committee will also investigate the complaints related to the breach of provisions under this Act. If any private clinical establishment flouts any standard protocols laid down by the Act, the committee will take immediate action and inform the matter to the district clinical establishment licensing authority. Apart from the CMoH, one gynaecologist or surgeon or anaesthetist and another from the local medical profession will be there on the committee. Both of them will be nominated by the CMoH. Another person from a non-governmental organisation working in the field will be nominated by the District Magistrate of the respective district while the other member will be from the Panchayat Raj Institution in the district as nominated by the Zilla Savadhipati.
Five health districts Bishnupur, Rampurhat, Nandigram, Diamond Harbour and Basirhat have been asked to form the committee. Earlier, the health department had directed the CMoHs in all the districts to send district inspection and monitoring committees to all blocks, sub-divisions and also to various municipality areas for better surveillance of imaging clinics or diagnostic centres so that Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act is implemented properly.
The CMoHs had been instructed to send the inspection and monitoring committee to all blocks for smooth supervision of all imaging clinics. The inspection team will go to the clinics and check if there are any anomalies in paper works. The move is to check incidents of prenatal sex determination which is not only found in Bengal but also across the country.
