Department

About the Department

The Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Mizoram is the Administrative Department headed by Dr. F.Lallianhlira, Principal Director. It is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the functions of the 2 (two) Directorates:

• Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and
• Directorate of Hospital & Medical Education(DHME)

• Directorate of Health Services, is responsible for establishment, administration, regulation and monitoring of Medical and Health Institutions along with handling the necessary supporting infrastructure within the state, medical education, food safety and drug control and monitoring and implementation of various programs related to public health and disease control.
• Directorate of Health Services, MCH&FW (Maternal and Child Health and Family Welfare) is responsible for monitoring and implementation of the centrally sponsored schemes implemented in the State to cater to the health needs of women and children.

The main responsibilities of DHS are as follows:

• To maintain minimum standards of services at all the institutions
• To upgrade the skills of doctors, nursing staff and other cadres from time to time
• To ensure preventive, promotive and curative services to all peoples
• To tackle outbreaks or epidemics
• To undertake construction and maintenance of buildings of the department
• To oversee postings, transfers, deployments, etc. of staff
• To procure and maintain logistics (medicines, equipment, etc.), Hospital infrastructure at District Level.

The main responsibilities of DHS (MCH&FW) are as follows:

• To implement, finance and monitor the NRHM programs.
• To ensure health of mother and child.
• To ensure access for safe delivery.
• To ensure access to pre-natal check-ups of pregnant women.
• To ensure access to vaccination facilities for mother and child.
• To ensure access to facilities for family planning and population stabilization.
• To promote nutrition and prevent anaemia in mothers and children up to 5 years.
• To prevent night blindness in children up to 5 years.
• To hold out reach camps, health melas, etc.
• To perform duties of the Chief Registrar of the State for Births and Deaths.
• To oversee appointments, trainings and performance of ASHAs.
• To universalize schemes under NRHM like RSBY, JSY, JSSK, VHS & NC, VHND.
• To oversee performance of Urban Health Centres (UHC).
• To oversee appointments and performance of doctors under AYUSH program.

The structure of DH&ME is presented below:-

• State Hospitals (SHs) report directly to the state directorate and are autonomous in function. SHs have bed strengths ranging from 100 plus to 500 and provide specific services like Preventive / Promotive / Curative Health Care,Training service, Disaster response, specialized mother and child facilities, specialized paediatric treatment facilities, 24-hour emergency facilities, etc.
• District hospitals (DHs) with bed strengths ranging from 30 number of beds plus to 200 number of beds are an essential component of the district health system and function as a secondary level of health care which provides curative, preventive and promotive healthcare services to the people in the district. Every district is expected to have a district hospital linked with the public hospitals/health centres down below the district such as Sub-district/Sub-divisional hospitals, Community Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and Sub-centres. In Mizoram District Hospitals are as below :-
• Sub-district/Sub-divisional hospitals (SDHs) are below the district and above the block level (CHC) hospitals and also act as First Referral Units with bed strength ranging from 10 number of beds to 30 number of beds. Specialist services are provided through these sub-district hospitals. These hospitals should play an important referral link between the Community Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and sub-centres. Sub-Divisional Hospitals are at Tlabung and Chawngte in Mizoram.