By IANS,
Pilani, : Health service providers, like primary health centres, should be more patient friendly and there is need to increase access to public healthcare, said a senior health official here Friday at a global conference.
“We need to make service providers (primary health centres) more patient friendly and increase access to public healthcare,” said P. Padmanabhan, adviser on public health administration in the health ministry, in his inaugural speech.
The three-day conference ‘Empowering Women in Developing Countries through Better Healthcare and Nutrition’ began in Pilani Thursday.
Delegates from 18 countries, including India, are participating in the conference, which aims to identify the obstacles to providing healthcare to women and formulate strategies for improving the health and nutrition of women and children.
“We need a strong political will to answer the critical questions of maternal and child health,” Samuel Mawunganitze, chief of Unicef in Rajasthan, told IANS.
The conference is being organised by the Women Studies and Societal Development Unit, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, jointly with the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries and is supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).