The government is committed in strengthening the district hospitals under the National Health Mission. Concerted efforts have been taken to improve the performance and quality of services in the district hospital. Some of the pertinent efforts in this direction include:

To strengthen the infrastructure of healthcare facilities apart from NHM are Ayushman Bharat- Health and Wellness Centres (now renamed as Ayushman Arogya Mandir), Emergency COVID Response Package (ECRP) I & II, 15th Finance Commission, Prime Minister - Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).

Efforts are ongoing in developing the capacities of district hospitals as training sites for training nurses, ANMs, paramedics and for providing Diplomate National Board (DNB)/CPS courses for medical officers (MOs).

The government has integrated “Mera Aspataal”, a patient feed-back system in the District Hospitals (DH). To ensure that the services provided through public health facilities are safe, patient-centric and of the assured level of quality, National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification is actively implemented across public health facilities.

Given that the evaluation of the DH’s performance is dependent on the integrity of data recording and reporting system, efforts have been taken to strengthen the Health Management and Information System (HMIS).

To ensure availability of essential drugs & Diagnostic tests to reduce the Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) of the patients visiting the public health facilities, Government has rolled out the Free Drugs Service Initiative and Free Diagnostics Initiative under National Health Mission (NHM).

Accessibility to specialist care has been further enhanced through tele-consultation platforms like e-Sanjeevani.

HMIS data is used in the assessment of Performance of District Hospitals. Accordingly, based on the data indicators captured in the HMIS, a set of 17 Key Performance indicators have been finalized jointly by NITI Aayog & MoHFW, covering the domains on Structure, Process, Output and Outcome. For the Second round of assessment, the data validation of HMIS-reported data against their corresponding physical records will be done for about 10% of the total District Hospitals.

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar’s written reply in the Lok Sabha today.