The Gujarat Food & Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) had a meeting with the top officials from the state health department and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) India, last week to understand and identify healthcare needs in the state. The meeting focused on discerning the areas that need urgent intervention like neglected diseases, while providing a road map for the future to deliver best healthcare environment to its citizens.

It is understood that the meeting deliberated on adopting a result oriented approach that will help in addressing the lacunae in the system by spotting the weak areas in it. Experts agreed upon working together on focussing on areas that had been less traded on like the issue of rising neglected diseases including communicable diseases, some non communicable disease, drug and detection mechanism etc.

The three-member team had visited Gujarat as a part of WHO's ongoing initiative that focuses on engaging with the state health departments to gauge and explore working with them on healthcare agendas. Dr Hemant G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat FDCA pointed out that it was discussed in length on how to set up a mechanism that will play an important role in doling out a proper plan.

He informed, “The whole meeting was aimed at getting into a consensus on how to support and help the state government in its endeavor to address the healthcare needs of the patients as per the requirements. The WHO representatives have been very pro-active in expressing their support and assured us that they will try their best to provide the state and the Gujarat FDCA with all the technical support. On our part we have extended all the possible support and co-operation to the state and the WHO to ensure good health care practices”.

He further informed that the meeting also discussed ways to strengthen the working relation with the WHO by extending training programme for capacity building measure for both the drug regulatory officials and the stakeholders on the GMP, cGMP requirements related to the pharma, medical and machinery industry.