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Top Health Committees & Planning in India: Powerful Nursing Notes (2024)
These nursing notes simplify India’s health planning journey, major committees, and recommendations—designed for B.Sc and GNM students studying Community Health Nursing.
Discover top powerful nursing notes on health planning in India and key health committees with their recommendations—essential for B.Sc and GNM Community Health Nursing.
Table of Contents
Health Planning in India
1. What is Health Planning?
- Definition: Organizing decisions & actions to improve health services (WHO).
- Goal: Solve health problems using available resources (money, manpower, materials).
- Importance: Without planning, health systems fail to meet people’s needs.
2. Why is Health Planning Needed in India?
- India is the 2nd most populous country → Needs efficient use of resources.
- Many health challenges (diseases, lack of facilities, unequal access).
- Government forms committees to advise on health policies.
3. Steps in Health Planning Cycle
- 1.Analyze the Situation
- Study population, diseases, hospitals, doctors, and community awareness.
- 2. Set Goals
- Define clear objectives (e.g., reduce malaria cases by 20%).
- 3. Assess Resources
- Check money, staff, equipment, and skills available.
- 4. Set Priorities
- Rank problems (e.g., focus on vaccines before building hospitals).
- 5. Write the Plan
- Detail steps, resources needed, and expected results.
- 6. Implement
- Execute the plan with proper management.
- 7. Monitor & Evaluate
- Track progress daily and compare results with goals.
4. Key Challenges in India
- Limited resources vs. huge population.
- Unequal access to healthcare (urban vs. rural).
- Changing disease patterns (e.g., rise in diabetes, heart diseases).
5. Examples of Planning
- Family Budgeting → Controls spending.
- National Health Programs → Like polio eradication, maternal health schemes.
Contributions of Health Committees in India
1. Bhore Committee (1946)
- Chairman: Sir Joseph Bhore
- Purpose: Improve India’s health system post-independence.
- Recommendations:
- Integration of curative & preventive healthcare.
- Primary Health Centers (PHCs) for rural areas (1 PHC per 40,000 people).
- Three-tier healthcare system:
- Primary – PHCs (10,000-20,000 people).
- Secondary – 650-bed Regional Health Units (RHUs).
- Tertiary – 2,500-bed District Hospitals.
- Training for “social physicians” (3 months in preventive medicine).
- Limitation: Ignored socio-economic factors affecting health.
2. Mudaliar Committee (1962)
- Chairman: Dr. A.L. Mudaliar
- Purpose: Review Bhore Committee’s progress & suggest improvements.
- Findings:
- Poor rural healthcare (half of India lacked basic facilities).
- Urban bias (more hospitals in cities).
- PHCs understaffed & underfunded.
- Recommendations:
- Strengthen district hospitals for specialist care.
- Improve PHC quality (1 health worker per 10,000 people).
- Integrate medical & health services.
3. Chadha Committee (1963)
- Chairman: Dr. M.S. Chadha (DGHS).
- Purpose: Maintain malaria control after eradication efforts.
- Recommendations:
- Multipurpose Health Workers (MPHWs) to handle:
- Malaria surveillance.
- Family planning.
- Vital statistics collection.
- 1 BHW (Basic Health Worker) per 10,000 people, supervised by Family Planning Health Assistants (FPHAs).
4.A. Mukherjee Committee (1965)
- Chairman: Shri Mukherjee.
- Issue: Chadha Committee’s multipurpose workers (MPHWs) failed in malaria + family planning.
- Recommendations:
- Separate malaria & family planning activities.
- Family Planning Health Assistants (FPHAs) should only focus on family planning (no supervision of BHWs).
- Strengthen state health directorates for family planning.
4.B. Mukherjee Committee (1966)
- Focus: Overburdened health workers (malaria, smallpox, leprosy, family planning).
- Recommendations:
- Multipurpose workers (MPWs) for general health services.
- Integrated approach for all health programs.
- Avoid overloading BHWs to maintain malaria control.
5. Jain Committee (1966-67)
- Chairman: Sri Ajit Prasad Jain
- Recommendation:
- 1️⃣ Study Hospital Categories
- Recommended expansion of medical care services (especially in underserved areas).
- 2️⃣ Review Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)
- Evaluated CGHS performance (healthcare for govt. employees).
- Suggested improvements for better service delivery.
- Impact: Influenced hospital infrastructure development and CGHS reforms.
6. Jungalwalla Committee (1967)
Chairman: Dr. N Jungalwalla
- Goal: Integrate health services under one system.
- Key Reforms:
- Unified cadre for doctors (common seniority, equal pay).
- Ban private practice for government doctors.
- Single administrator for medical + public health programs.
7. Kartar Singh Committee (1973)
Chairman: Kartar Singh
- Focus: Multipurpose workers (MPWs) for efficiency.
- Recommendations:
- 1 PHC per 50,000 people → 16 sub-centres (1 per 3,500 people).
- MPHW Teams:
- 1 Male Health Worker (MHW) + 1 Female Health Worker (FHW) per sub-centre.
- 1 Supervisor per 4 workers.
- Replaced ANMs with Female Health Workers (FHWs).
8. Shrivastav Committee (1975)
- Chairman: Dr. J B Shrivastava
- Goal: Community-based healthcare.
- Key Ideas:
- Train local paraprofessionals (teachers, postmasters) for basic health services.
- Village Health Guides (VHGs) to link communities with PHCs.
- Rural Health Scheme (1977):
- Medical colleges train students in rural PHCs (“Reorientation of Medical Education” – ROME).
- 1 male + 1 female health worker per 5,000 people.
9. Mehta Committee (1983)
- Also Known As: Medical Education Review Committee
- Chairman: Shri Mehta
- Key Reports & Recommendations:
- ✅ Part I: Medical Education Reforms
- Focused on improving medical training standards.
- Suggested curriculum updates to match healthcare needs.
- ✅ Part II: Manpower Projections
- Estimated required numbers of:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Pharmacists
- Aimed to balance supply & demand of medical professionals.
- Impact: Helped shape medical education policies and workforce planning.
10. Bajaj Committee (1987)
- Chairman: Dr. J.S. Bajaj
- Focus: Improving medical education & health manpower planning
- Recommendations:
- ✅ Admissions Reform
- Fair procedures for undergraduate (UG) & postgraduate (PG) medical admissions.
- ✅ Course Duration
- Review UG course length & internship.
- Review PG course duration & thesis requirements.
- ✅ Residency Scheme
- Improve residency training for hands-on experience.
- ✅ Quality Upgrade
- Improve UG & PG medical education standards.
- Impact: Helped streamline medical education policies in India.
11. Krishnan Committee (1992)
- Chairman: Dr. Krishnan
- Focus: Urban slum healthcare & voluntary health workers
- Recommendations:
- ✅ Health Post Scheme
- 1 Voluntary Health Worker (VHW) per 2,000 people (Honorarium: ₹100/month).
- ✅ Services Provided by Health Posts:
- Preventive – Vaccination, sanitation, maternal/child health.
- Family Planning – Counseling & contraceptive distribution.
- Curative – Basic treatment for common illnesses.
- Referral – Link to hospitals for serious cases.
- Outreach – Health education, motivation for family planning.
- Record Keeping – Maintain health data for slum populations.
- Impact: Laid the foundation for urban health missions (e.g., National Urban Health Mission).
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