– ORGANOGRAM –

Administration: 

Currently, under the department there are 12 Hospitals & Primary Health Centers (PHC), 33 Clinics, and one mobile clinic for the remote nomadic area in Jangthang, and Ngoenga School for differently-abled children. A total of 256 staff including medical and non-medical staffs are working at these facilities, these staff are appointed and administered directly by the Department of Health as per stipulated rules and regulations of the Tibetan Voluntary health organization (TVHA). The Department appoints Executive Secretary at the Hospital & PHC branch who oversees the administration, whereas the clinic administrations are overseen by the, respective settlement officers.
With generous financial assistance from donors, the department bears the running expenses of these hospitals and PHCs including salaries of the staff, other recurring and non-recurring expenses. Apart from that, the Department also undertakes the implementation of special projects related to primary health care services.
The Health Kalon and the Health Secretary on an ex-officio basis are the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors (BoDs) for the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute (TMAI) and Tibetan Delek hospital, located in Dharamshala. Every bill passed in the board of directors (BoDs) meetings are thoroughly discussed and approved under the chairmanship of the Health Kalon and the Health Secretary.

 

Public Health:

Under the Public health initiative of the Department, it works in the area of disease prevention and promotion of health through its various public health programs with the overall objective to improve community health and to alleviate disease burden across the Tibetan community through its network of health facilities.

The public health initiative, encompasses essential programs such as Mother and Child Health, Mental Health & Telepsychiatry, Health Information System, TB, Social and Behavior Change Communication, Health Media, Disability Support, HIV and Substance Abuse Prevention, Tibetan Torture survivor’s rehabilitation, Comprehensive Community Outreach and Coordinated  Care (CCOCC), Telemedicine, Optimal Service Model and Hepatitis B control.

Some key areas of work under the public health initiative includes:

1) Provision of medical and social support services for vulnerable Individuals like people living with HIV, Substance Abuse victims, TB patients, patients with mental health problem, pregnant women, Torture survivors, Destitute, and differently-abled individuals.

2) Promotion of health awareness and outreach in settlements, schools, and monasteries to advocate healthy lifestyle and healthy proactive behavior change within the community through observance of important WHO designated world health days, Continued health education sessions by health care providers at public spaces and at door steps, publication of educational materials and mobile health education initiatives. The department also organizes capacity building trainings of the field staffs,

3) Provision of preventive health services like free and subsidized Pap smear screening and HPV vaccination, TB screening, Immunization of children under five, and Antenatal & Postnatal checkups, PCV vaccination for Elders above 65. Other screening services are also planned and implemented on a yearly basis based on the proposed project and the availability of funds.

The zone staffs oversees the smooth functioning of these programs apart from other responsibilities with their allocated settlement field staffs to ensure these health services reach the target beneficiaries while also assessing the outcomes.

 Projects :

Under projects the department strives to promote awareness on WASH, ensure adequate supply of safe drinking water and sanitation in the Tibetan settlements. Through this initiative diseases arising out of poor sanitation and water borne disease is kept under check. Under this initiative apart from awareness, repair & construction of infrastructure include:

  • Construction/Installation  of water tanks;
  • Drilling of bore wells;
  • Construction and renovation of toilets, bathrooms, drainage, septic tanks, and garbage disposal;
  • Provision of water filtration tanks and treatment plants like reverse osmosis plant (RO)

 Tibetan Medicare System:

Tibetan Medicare System is a holistic secondary and tertiary health care (hospital care) coverage for all Tibetans living in India under the responsibility of the Tibetan Voluntary Health Association (TVHA), registered under the Societies Act 1860. The system is built on the Public-Private Partnership model and creates a health fund across the entire Tibetan exile community. It provides equitable and comprehensive health care coverage on a yearly basis designed to serve the health care needs of the entire Tibetan exile community by creating a more sustainable financing source.  TMS contributes towards a holistic preventive and curative system integrating both ‘SORIG’, the Tibetan traditional herbal medicine, and allopathic medicine system in order to deliver effective and efficient health care services tailored to the needs of the Tibetan community in exile.

For detailed information kindly refer the program section.