Srinagar, Sept 27: The Government on Tuesday said it has started a Mother and Child Tracking Facilitation Centre (MCTFC) under National Health Mission (NHM) with an aim to improve the maternal and child healthcare services across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Terming it a major step to improve the maternal and child health care services, the officials told Rising Kashmir that MCTFC was set up in National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW).
“The centre is operational with 86 Helpdesk Agents (HAs), 2 Medical Specialists, 2 Supervisors and a few more administrative and IT staff. It is a tool for providing relevant information and guidance directly to pregnant women, parents of children and to community health workers, thus creating awareness among them about health services and promoting healthy practices and behavior”, the officials said.
Besides the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, the MCTFC is making calls in 21 States and UTs which include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Telangana, Maharashtra and Nagaland.
Having different features, the MCTFC is a name based web based service that captures the details of pregnant women and children up to 5 years and tracks delivery of due services to the preganant woman. It aims to ensure that every pregnant woman gets complete and quality ante and postnatal care and every child receives a full range of immunization services. Besides monitoring delivery of mother and child health services, MCTFC makes use of the opportunity to directly communicate with the ANMs, ASHAs and pregnant women and parents of young children on their mobiles.
As per the officials, it will also gather the data from the states on the health schemes and facilities reaching the beneficiaries and to evaluate them. Also it generates awareness about their entitlement under various government programs and schemes.
The facility as per the officials will also be used for sending appropriate health promotion messages in voice and text to beneficiaries that are relevant according to the month of pregnancy or age of the child. Also transfer of Janani Suraksha Yojana benefits to pregnant women.
They said it will be also be used for transfer of ASHA payment directly into their accounts which will ensure that AHSAs receive full range of incentives payment timely and regularly. Further training of AHSAs through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System as per need and requirement.
The officials said the feedback helps the MoHFW, State and UT Governments to easily and quickly evaluate the program interventions and plan appropriate corrective measures to improve the health service delivery. They also said that the helpdesk agents also check with ASHAs and ANMs regarding availability of essential drugs and supplies like Iron Folic Acid, ORS packets etc.
“Information relating to upcoming programs, initiatives, validation of data etc is also provided to the beneficiaries and health workers”, the officials told.
Till December 2021, lakhs of calls were made to beneficiaries through MCTFC for data validation, and promotion and facilitation in availing maternal and child healthcare services and government schemes”, the officials said.