Government of Madhya Pradesh’s Health Sector Reform Programme

Options led a programme of support to the Government of Madhya Pradesh’s Health Sector Reform Programme to bring about increased use of quality health services, especially by the poorest people and in underserved areas.

Project achievements:

• Improved equitable access to quality public healthcare services including supporting assessments of BEmONC and CEmONC facilities linked to the District Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) and State QAC processes to ensure action to improve service delivery.
• Supported roll-out at state and district-levels of the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahayog Yojana to provide partial wage compensation to pregnant and lactating women to promote rest and healthy feeding practices and increase utilisation of healthcare services
• Improved accountability of health services including support to the development of the State Health Policy and establishment and operationalization of Monitoring and Evaluation units in the National Rural Health Mission and Department for Women and Children’s Development.
• Strengthened organisational structures and human resource management systems including development and operation of an HR Database Management System Software and Doctor Database for the Department of Public Health and Family Welfare.
• Supported participation of private service providers including support to the scale up of the Janani Express – a scheme that provides 24/7 emergency transport services to rural patients – through dissemination of the evaluation and advocacy.
• Strengthened integrated service delivery to reduce malnutrition and improve child health including support to develop a State Nutrition Policy, Strategy and Action Plan, resulting in the creation of a Nutrition Mission (Atal Bal Mission) to address child malnutrition. The establishment of the mission significantly raised the profile of child nutrition, promoting a convergent and decentralised district planning approach with availability of flexible funding and promotion of outreach by community workers and community mobilisation for nutrition action.
• Community mobilisation pilots for addressing malnutrition in children were designed and successfully implemented in partnership with University College London, Ekjut and Real Medicine Foundation (RMF), resulting in increased numbers of mothers attending Anganwadi Centres for regular weighing and immunisation sessions.