Govt launches data collection programme to improve services

With a view to monitoring the progress of its programmes, the health ministry has developed the “Country Accountability Framework” to collect information about maternal and child health from around the country in a uniformed way, an official said yesterday.
At present, different NGOs and government field workers use different methods to collect and process such information which often contradicts with each other's.
In order to bring all agencies' data under a single system, an online form has been developed for all field workers of health and family planning, said Prof Abul Kalam Azad, additional director general for planning and development, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
 “The step will also set a standard in terms of monitoring and reporting for workers of both the government and private sectors,” he told a dissemination workshop of Management Information System, DGHS and Bangladesh Health Reporters' Forum at the DGHS office in the capital.
The online form, through which the information will be collected and stored centrally, will also facilitate better monitoring of immunisation and care during pregnancies, he added.
Prof Azad said the DGHS would distribute laptops from next month in the community clinics across Bangladesh so that its workers could collect information in it and store the information in the online database which would be reviewed from time to time.