Public Health Promotion Strategy
Public Health Promotion Strategy of Lhuntse Introduction Public health is the first priority of a nation as health is the chief priority to man. According to the American Public Health Association, APHA(2001), public health as the practice of preventing diseases and promoting good health within groups of people from small communities to entire countries. The functions of public health include preventing epidemics, monitoring health status of the population, developing policies and laws to protect health, providing health care services at all costs and all activities related to benefiting public and their health.
Bhutan, within the confines of China in the north and India in the south, was a late bloomer in to development. Now, 90% of the population has access to basic health care services delivered through a network of 29 hospitals, 176 Basic Health Units and 541 outreach clinics. Of the twenty Dzongkhags or districts in Bhutan, Lhuentse dzongkhag is one of the least developed with eight gewogs. “Most of the villages are still in accessible with lack of roads and electricity. one hospital, 11 Basic Health Units and 31 Outreach clinics render public health services in the dzongkhag.
About 50% of the households have access to piped drinking water supply. ”(Ninth five year plan, Bhutan, n. d). This paper plans to focus on studying the public health sector scenario in the particular dzongkhag and improving it. Purpose of the action plan Purpose of the action plan is to promote various factors such as followings •To improve maternal health care, it is very essential to provide healthy manner of health services to improve maternal health care to make pregnancy safe. Mother’s education, Mother’s education is the basic knowledge of parenting. •To Improvement in food supply and sanitation, improvements in food supply and sanitation will lead to increase life ps and reduce disease. Initiatives taken by the health services such as clean drinking water supply and hygiene directly help in improvement in food supply and sanitation. • To Reduce in Poverty, to make reduction in poverty line . To Change living standard, with the development taking place in the country, living standard of the people has been rapidly changed.
Public health Issues and Concerns •Lhuentse Dzongkhags has the concern over the issues related to public health as follows; •As the morbidity among the children under five year of age and all pregnant women and women in child bearing age was accounted to , Male-767 and Female-642. (PHCB, pg. 191). •The number of deliveries of the new born babies attended by health professionals was – 90 pregnant women, whereas, the number of deliverie not attended was recorded to -231 cases as noted in (PHCB, pg. 04). •According to PHCB, 2005,The Dzongkhag has also noted the increase in the number of disables that was numbered to 990 people and most were disabled to seeing that was recorded to-327 people. (PHCB,pg. 211) •Most of the people in the Dzongkhag had limited access to safe drinking water with the account of 253 households having piped water within house and 2377 households having piped water outside house. (PHCB, pg. 222) 5.
The people in the Dzongkhag had limited acces to basic health facility of proper toilet. As, 2143 households had the accessibility to pit latrine and 423 households had no latrines at all (PHCB, pg. 241). The issues also includes, •Maternal and child health •The lack of nutrition in the diet leading to malnutrition •Outbreak of infectious diseases •The high alcohol consumption leading to increase in alcohol related diseases (Liver cirrhosis). Public Health Promotion Strategy
Their strategies put emphasis on improvement ofquality of services, development of human and institutional capacity, and decentralization with focus on rural access. 1. Enhance the quality of health services To improve the quality of services and further consolidate the infrastructure. Standardization and quality assurance, focusing on diagnostic and healing aspects, and use of appropriate technology. 2. To reach the inaccessible population There are still population groups who are not reached satisfactorily by the health services.
Taking into account all of the problems and factors, Out Reach Clinics (ORCs) have been constructed and organized. 3. Strengthen traditional medicine system The traditional medicine system is being strengthened with the emphasis on human resource development through the Institute of Traditional Medicine. This has also been included in the ordinary health services at the hospital. The capacity and productivity of the Pharmaceutical Units have been increased.
