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Journalism of Courage
Only two of 120 district hospitals assessed across the country have been found complying to the Central government’s norms — Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) — The Indian Express has learnt.
The Union Health Ministry had released the IPHS in 2022 and now it has conducted an initial assessment to see whether health facilities such as district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs are complying to the norms.
The assessment has been conducted through a digital toolkit — ODK. The outcome of the assessment will be made available on the IPHS dashboard, which will be launched by Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Friday. Officials of state governments and the Union Health Ministry can access these assessment reports.
According to sources, initial assessment shows that out of 864 district hospitals across the country, 120 have been assessed till June 10 and only two of them — Karimnagar and Peddapalli in Telangana — were found to be complying to the IPHS.
The health facilities meeting and adhering to 80% or more of IPHS 2022 norms are classified as ‘IPHS compliance’.
Of 1,524 sub-district hospitals, 150 have been assessed till June 10 and only five of them have been found compliant. There are 6,624 community health centres, of which 711 have been assessed till June 10 and only 10 have been found complying.
Overall, out of 2.16 lakh health facilities in rural and urban areas, 28,096 were assessed till June 10, and only 7,961 (28%) were found complying to IPHS.
The sources said that the Health Ministry, in collaboration with the National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC), a think tank under the ministry, has developed the ODK toolkit. The aim is to assist the health facilities to themselves assess the gaps.
The IPHS has10 parameters — service provision, infrastructure, human resource, drugs, diagnostics, equipment, accountability and operationalising, quality monitoring and certification, and clinical governance. The health facilities can fill information based on these parameters and based on the score an assessment report is generated.
The sources said the Health Ministry supports states and UTs by providing funds to address the identified gaps. The purpose is to achieve IPHS compliance in at least 50% of the healthcare facilities by 2025-26.
The sources said the assessment of health facilities for IPHS is part of the first 100 days’ agenda of the NDA government.
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