The Ministry
of Health of His Majesty's Government of Nepal developed
a 20-year Second Long-Term Health Plan (SLTHP) for FY
2054-74 (1997-2017). The aim of the SLTHP is to guide
health sector development in the improvement of the
health of the population, particularly those whose health
needs are not often met.
The SLTHP addresses disparities in healthcare, assuring
gender sensitivity and equitable community access to
quality healthcare services. The aims of the SLTHP are
to provide a guiding framework to build successive periodic
and annual health plans that improve the health status
of the population; to develop appropriate strategies,
programmes, and action plans that reflect national health
priorities that are affordable and consistent with available
resources; and to establish co-ordination among public,
private and NGO sectors and development partners.
The SLTHP vision is a healthcare system with equitable
access and quality services in both rural and urban
areas. The system would encompass the concepts of sustainability,
full community participation, decentralisation, gender
sensitivity, effective and efficient management, and
private and NGO participation.
2.1 Objectives
To improve the health
status of the population of the most vulnerable
groups, particularly those whose health needs
often are not met-women and children, the rural
population, the poor, the underprivileged, and
the marginalized population.
To extend to all districts cost-effective
public health measures and essential curative
services for the appropriate treatment of common
diseases and injuries.
To provide the appropriate numbers,
distribution and types of technically competent
and socially responsible health personnel for
quality healthcare throughout the country, particularly
in under-served areas.
To improve the management and
organisation of the public health sector and to
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the
healthcare system.
To develop appropriate roles for
NGOs, and the public and private sectors in providing
and financing health services.
To improve inter-and intra-sectoral
co-ordination and to provide the necessary conditions
and support for effective decentralisation with
full community participation.
2.2 Targets
The targets of the SLTHP are as follows:
To reduce the infant
mortality rate to 34.4 per thousand live births;
To reduce the under-five mortality
rate to 62.5 per thousand;
To reduce the total fertility
rate to 3.05;
To increase life expectancy to
68.7 years;
To reduce the crude birth rate
to 26.6 per thousand;
To reduce the crude death rate
to 6 per thousand;
To reduce the maternal mortality
rate to 250 per hundred thousand births;
To increase the contraceptive
prevalence rate to 58.2 percent;
To increase the percentage of
deliveries attended by trained personnel to 95%;
To increase the percentage of
pregnant women attending a minimum of four antenatal
visits to 80%;
To reduce the percentage of iron-deficiency
anaemia among pregnant women to 15%;
To increase the percentage of
women of child-bearing age (15-44) who receive
tetanus toxoid (TT2) to 90%;
To decrease the percentage of
newborns weighing less than 2500 grams to 12%;
To have essential healthcare services
(EHCS) in the districts available to 90% of the
population living within 30 minutes' travel time
of facilities;
To have essential drugs available
at 100% of facilities;
To equip 100% of facilities with
full staff to deliver essential health care services;
and
To increase total health expenditures
to 10% of total government expenditures.
