Goa ranks fourth on NITI Aayog’s Health Index

Panaji: Among the eight smaller states, Goa has been ranked fourth in the overall performance in the NITI Aayog’s Health Index report.

Goa improved its position from fifth to fourth position and Tripura from seventh to sixth from 2015-16 (base year) to 2017-18 (reference year).

As per the report, Mizoram ranked first with highest overall performance among the smaller states.

Four states that retained their base year ranking in the reference year are Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The ranking of Sikkim dropped from the fourth place in the base year to fifth place in the reference year. Arunachal Pradesh’s ranking dropped from sixth place in the base year to seventh place in the reference year.

Based on the Health Index score range for reference year (2017-18), Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have been categorised as Aspirants and have substantial scope for improvement.

Meghalaya and Goa have been categorised as Achievers, as they exhibited better performance but still have significant room for improvement.

The report revealed that some states with relative high level of economic development did not perform as well in the Health Index score, which also include Goa, Delhi and Sikkim.

From base to reference year, four states show positive incremental progress: Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, while the remaining four states of Meghalaya, Goa, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh registered negative incremental change.

Arunachal Pradesh (ranked at the bottom) exhibited the highest decline in Health Index score with 3.44 percentage points, while Tripura (ranked at the top) observed the highest increase of 2.87 percentage points.

In the domain of health outcomes, Goa, along with Manipur and Nagaland, improved its performance from base year to reference year and the performance of the remaining smaller states suffered a huge decline in Health Outcomes Index.

For smaller states, the proportion of newborns with Low Birth Weight varied from 4.1 per cent in Nagaland to 15.6 per cent in Goa. Goa, along with Tripura, reported a decline in the vacancy of auxiliary nurse midwife.

The report states that Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are yet to operationalise any 24×7 primary health care units. However, the report found that Goa has made satisfactory progress by establishing at least one cardiac care unit for the two districts.

From base year to reference year, slight decline in birth registration was observed in Goa, along with Sikkim, Lakshadweep and Daman and Diu.

The report states that none of the hospitals in Goa, Nagaland and Sikkim have public health facilities with accreditation certificates by a standard quality assurance programme.