Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme Gets $287 Million Loan From World Bank

Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme (TNHSRP) gets a loan of $287 million from the World Bank after an agreement was reached between the state government, the central government and the World Bank.

The programme will work towards improving the quality of healthcare, eradicate and reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and bridge the equity gap between reproductive and child health care services, reports The Hindu.

Tamil Nadu state is reeling under the burden of the NCDs which account to about 69 per cent of overall deaths. Speaking on the development Sameer Kumar, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance said “Tamil Nadu can serve as a model for how to take health system performance to the next level by investing in the public sector and offer lessons to other states. We are happy that the World Bank is helping the state in this journey.”

TNHSRP will assist the state government in preparing clinical protocols and guidelines, achieve national-level accreditation on primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in the public sector. The initiative will also engage the physicians, nurses and paramedics through continuous orientation and improve the feedback loop between citizens and the state through constant engagement and making data available for the public.

The programme will concentrate more on districts which have a large population and constitute the bottom of the reproductive and child health (RCH), threre are nine such districts in the state.