RIHFW Kashmir
Management Training Programme for Senior District Officers:
Apart from being involved in the delivery of preventive and curative services, doctors in the periphery have to shoulder certain managerial functions as handling of financial matters, catering to vehicles, stores and materials, disciplinary matters, service rules, and managing the most difficult resource ie the human being. Middle-rung management (CMO's, Dy CMO, BMO's) is the pivot of an effectively managed health care system anywhere. Management skills are not inborn; one has to cultivate these through training and experience. Health service management has become a specialized category of management programmes in the developed world and a qualification in management is a pre-requisite for managerial positions. In the developing world, however, promotions are generally based on seniority ie the length of service whether productive or not. Most of the juniors, with time, move on to the higher management cadres whether they have the necessary technical and managerial skills or not. And usually any new challenge which is attendant in the new job leads to panic and mismanagement.
With this view, the Institute held the first 2-days' management training programme for chief medical officers, deputy chief medical officers and block medical officers of Kashmir Division in May 2000. A total of 53 senior participants took part and interacted with various qualified and trained experts on different subjects. The 2nd and the 3rd such re-orientations were held in 2002 and 2003, in which both hundreds of senior and middle rung managers participated. The training curriculum adopted in this interactive programme is given in the table below.
Table VIII: Training Curriculum of 2-days Management Training for Senior District and Block Medical Officers
Day I
- Management: General principles and modern concepts
- Resources and effective use of resources - role of the middle and peripheral management
- Managerial functions of BMO's and PHC medical officers
- Human resource management
Day II
- Financial management at the block level and in the PHC
- Material management: Purchase, indent, inventory control and stores management
- Vehicular management: Judicious use and maintenance of vehicles
- Service rules and the medical officer