Despite being the number one state on several parameters, Haryana lags behind several other states when it comes to the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the maternal mortality rate (MMR). Out of every 1,000 children born in Haryana, 42 die within a year of their birth while 162 out of 1 lakh mothers die during childbirth. Under a special exercise Regular Appraisal of Programme Implementation in District (RAPID), started by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a 70-member team of experts has completed its supervision of various government hospitals and health centres in Fatehabad. “While our teams checked the quality of services being provided in the government hospitals, our main focus is on cases of MMR and IMR and to suggest means to minimise these deaths,” said Rakesh Gupta, Mission Director of the NRHM, while addressing mediapersons after a meeting of doctors. Deputy Commissioner Saket Kumar, Civil Surgeon Suraj Bhan Kamboj and Medical Superintendent of General Hospital, Fatehabad, Mukta Kumar was among those present in the meeting. “Fatehabad is the 15th district of Haryana covered under the exercise and one of the better districts,” said Gupta. He added that Panchkula, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Rohtak were among the best districts while Mewat, Palwal and Panipat were among some of the worst districts in this regard. He said during their week-long exercise, the teams from the NRHM checked a district hospital, a sub-divisional hospital, four community health centres, 14 primary health centres, 49 sub-centres and three urban reproductive and child health care centres in Fatehabad. “We have found several gaps in various government hospitals in Fatehabad and there is a huge scope of improvement in health services in the district,” Gupta added. He said it was a “supportive supervision”, where the emphasis was more on providing support and guidance rather than finding faults. Gupta said the teams conducting supervision consisted experts from the NRHM, PGIMS Rohtak and PGI Chandigarh. He added that the programme was one of the best in the country and had technical support from international bodies like United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes.