Only two of 120 district hospitals assessed meet health standards: report

New Delhi: Only two among more than hundred district hospitals assessed in the country are found to be complying with the norms issued by the Central government, The Indian Express reported.

The Union Health Ministry assessed 120 of 864 district hospitals across the country based on Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) that the government had released in 2022.

The assessment was carried out to find out if district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs are complying with the norms.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Friday will launch the IPHS dashboard, which will make available the outcome of the assessment conducted through a digital toolkit — ODK.

It is reported that officials of state governments and the Union Health Ministry can access the assessment reports.

The initial assessment carried out till June 10 reportedly showed only two of the district hospitals — Karimnagar and Peddapalli in Telangana complying with the norms.

The hospitals adhering to 80% or more of IPHS 2022 norms are put into the citatory of ‘IPHS compliance’.

As for sub-district hospitals, only five out of the 150 assessed among the total 1,524 are found to be adhering to the norms.

While there are 6,624 community health centres in the country, only 10 the 711 assessed till June 10 are found be meeting the norms.

Of the 2.16 lakh health facilities in rural and urban areas, only 7,961 (28%) of , 28,096 assessed till June 10 are keeping to the IPHS.

The Health Ministry developed the ODK toolkit in collaboration with the National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC), which works under the ministry.

The 10 parameters of the IPHS include ‘service provision, infrastructure, human resource, drugs, diagnostics, equipment, accountability and operationalising, quality monitoring and certification, and clinical governance,’ according to the report.