Kolhapur|HL
The district health department has achieved 100% compliance in registration for the mother-child tracking system (MCTS) of the Union government. For the past two years the compliance rate was around 95%.
The department has registered 47,471 mothers and 41,884 children till March 31, against the target of 44,545 mothers and 40,495 children respectively, a district health office report says.
District health officer R S Adkekar said, “The MCTS was launched countrywide in 2009 under the National Rural Health Mission. Under the scheme, pre- and post-delivery health of the mother and child is registered and monitored through online data entry in the MCTS database.”
Adkekar said, “The MCTS needs to be updated daily to get the consistent data. However, in the past two years, we faced several problems, which is why we could not achieve 100% registration. In 2015-16, we have ensured availability of internet, electricity and skilled manpower, resulting in over 100% compliance.”
He said the numbers will remain consistent now, as the department has set up an IT cell at each of the 12 talukas of the district. One person in the IT cell looks after the data entry of the MCTS and progress of the primary health centres in the area.
According to Adkekar, small and affordable measures can significantly reduce the health risks that women face when they become pregnant.
Most maternal deaths could be prevented if women had access to appropriate health care during pregnancy, childbirth, and immediately afterwards. This is the actual mission of the MCTS.
Under the MCTS, the primary health centre staff needs to keep a record on the health of potential mothers in the area. The district has 73 PHCs.
As the probable mother comes for her first check-up, her entry is made in the MCTS database and regular monitoring is done on her health afterwards.
Adkekar said the MCTS gives a good medical database for the patient as well as for the doctor.
The department has started with different approaches for increasing the input.
At remote locations we had allowed daily reporting of data through SMS. Daily reporting of the MCTS has been made mandatory for the primary health centre staff.
Inputs :TNN
