Madhya Pradesh has sharply expanded healthcare infrastructure in the tribal-dominated Balaghat district, tripling paediatric beds from 50 to 150 and more than doubling PICU capacity from 10 to 21 beds, as authorities intensify a multi-disease control campaign targeting malaria, measles-rubella, and diarrhoea. Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla disclosed the expansion on Thursday, 24 September 2026, while reviewing the district's health situation via video conference.

Key Infrastructure Additions

The expansion at the Balaghat district hospital is part of a broader push under the ₹332 crore Balaghat Integrated Development Plan, which proposes repairing and equipping 22 health centres and upgrading two primary health centres into 30-bed community health centres. Additionally, 51 new bond doctors have joined the district, addressing longstanding staffing shortfalls in one of Madhya Pradesh's more remote regions.

Six mobile medical units have been deployed in the Birsa and Baihar development blocks, providing outpatient services, fever screening, antenatal and postnatal care, tuberculosis screening, non-communicable disease checks, medicines, and health awareness services. The terrain in Balaghat — characterised by forested hills and dispersed tribal settlements — has historically made last-mile healthcare delivery difficult.

Malaria Surveillance and Control

Since 19 July, 26,865 people have been tested for malaria and 980 cases detected — of which 895 were Plasmodium falciparum, the more dangerous strain, and 85 were Plasmodium vivax. Fifteen fever-screening teams are conducting door-to-door visits in malaria-endemic areas.

Containment efforts include insecticide spraying across 7,065 houses in 71 villages and thermal fogging covering 8,610 houses in 44 villages. The disease-response workforce comprises one consultant, four malaria technical supervisors, and 112 community health volunteers. This is one of the more intensive district-level malaria responses seen in Madhya Pradesh in recent years, reflecting the Centre's heightened focus on eliminating malaria by 2030.

Measles-Rubella Vaccination and Diarrhoea Response

Around 27,000 children have been vaccinated through catch-up activities, while nearly 15,000 children aged one to ten years have been covered under outbreak-response immunisation targeting measles and rubella. The dual focus on catch-up and outbreak-response immunisation reflects persistent gaps in routine coverage in tribal blocks, where institutional delivery rates and child immunisation have lagged state averages.

On the diarrhoea front, ORS and zinc have been supplied to over 1.6 lakh families, and 734 severely ill children have been hospitalised and treated — a figure that underscores the acute disease burden still carried by the district's youngest residents.

Maternal Health and the Road to Model District Status

Rajendra Shukla highlighted that antenatal check-up (ANC) coverage has reached 90%, calling it 'important progress' but directing officials to push for 100% coverage. 'A special campaign should be conducted to take it to 100 per cent,' he said, adding specific instructions for timely identification, follow-up, and referral of women with high-risk pregnancies.

Shukla set an aspirational target for the district: 'With seriousness, dedication and better coordination, all panchayats of Balaghat can be developed as Suman Panchayats,' he said, framing Balaghat as a potential model for healthcare delivery in remote and tribal areas. The stated ambition aligns with the state government's broader effort to demonstrate that infrastructure investment and community-level outreach can together reduce preventable mortality in underserved regions.

How quickly the expanded capacity translates into measurable reductions in child mortality and disease incidence will be closely watched in the weeks ahead.