To ensure that India’s public healthcare services quality standards are not gamed, the health and family welfare ministry has directed all states and Union territories to strengthen the credibility of virtual assessments for National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification.
This assumes significance as the Union government has linked this certification to releasing funds under the National Health Mission (NHM).
National Quality Assurance Standards is a set of standards for assessing and certifying the quality of public health facilities in India.
Only around 10% of NQAS-certified facilities in virtual mode undergo physical verification.
To ensure stricter adherence to quality, the Centre has spelt out the Central Quality Supervisory Committee-approved (CQSC) criteria these healthcare facilities must meet to be eligible for virtual assessment. Facilities not approved for national-level assessment are also not eligible for virtual assessment.
Notably, since this provision was launched in June, the government has received many applications from various states for virtual certification.
Ensure credibility of virtual assessment
“As per the approved protocol for virtual certification, 10% of facilities with NQAS certification via virtual mode will also undergo physical verification onsite,” according to a health ministry communication to all states/UTs, which was accessed by Mint.
The communication suggests several measures to enhance the credibility ot virtual assessment of public health facilities. Also, quality certification of government hospitals is expected to ensure greater accessibility of medical services to people, even in villages across India. This will further ensure equitable healthcare to all citizens and increase the footfall in public hospitals.
“The facilities must meet the CQSC-approved certification criteria to be eligible for the weightage calculation approved for virtual certification. Facilities achieving Quality Certification with conditionality may apply for recertification in virtual mode. Facilities getting deferred in the national-level assessment cannot apply for virtual assessments, these facilities will be assessed in physical mode,” the communication stated.
The Centre has also directed the States/UTs to ensure proper network connectivity during the assessment. In case the virtual assessment is cancelled due to poor network, these medical facilities will be assessed in physical mode.
Setting quality standards for public hospitals
As part of the plan, the health ministry targets 50% NQAS certification of public health facilities by 2025 and 100% by the end of 2026.
These quality standards are mandatory for district hospitals (DHs), community health centres (CHCs), primary health centres (PHCs), urban PHCs (UPHCs) and Ayushman Arogya Mandir (AAMs).
Till December, of the 1.75 lakh facilities to be certified by next year, only 22,787 have received NQAS certification.
Mint reported that the Centre has made the National Health Mission’s funding for states and Union territories conditional on their government facilities getting the necessary quality certification.
A Lancet report published in 2018 said some 1.6 million people die every year due to poor quality healthcare in India. The country can save 3 out of 5 lives by providing quality healthcare.
Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.
