The public medical and healthcare sector in Uttar Pradesh is making a major push at improving the quality of its infrastructure, services and delivery mechanism.
The state government has applied to the Quality Council of India (QCI) for accreditation of 23 district hospitals and 10 community health centres (CHC) under National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (Nabh).
Functioning under QCI, Nabh sets standards in the health industry and is considering the application and a meeting is likely to be held soon, QCI Secretary General Girdhar J Gyani told Business Standard.
He also met UP Principal Secretary (Health) Neeta Chaudhary in this regard. QCI has suggested the state to institute an empowered cell to monitor the healthcare segment, while QCI could help in capacity building. QCI is an autonomous Central body that establishes and operates accreditation structure in India.
In Uttar Pradesh, there are about 75 district hospitals, 400 CHCs, 3,000 primary health centres and six medical colleges. Meanwhile, Gyani handed over Nabh accreditation to Lucknow-based Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, first hospital in Uttar Pradesh and first government hospital in India to get such an accreditation for three years, the hospital will be under Nabh surveillance.
In the last three years, Nabh had received such application from 525 hospitals, while it provided accreditation to about 70. “We have asked hospitals to provide infection-related data after three months, so that we can ascertain that the basic quality procedures and protocols are maintained,” he said.
Gyani said the domestic healthcare sector lacked ‘permanent structure’ quality, however, states like Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had started working in this area. Gyani expressed concern over poor quality standards of pathology labs in India. “There are an estimated 1,25,000 pathology labs, of which 300 in the organised sector have secured accreditation,” he added.
