A total of 403 government health facilities have received certifications under National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS), Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative (LaQshya) and MusQan (an initiative to ensure child-friendly services in public health facilities).
At an event to handover the certificates to doctors and staff of the health facilities on Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu State Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said that 323 health facilities have received NQAS certificates. This included eight district headquarters hospitals, 206 primary health centres (PHC), 37 urban PHCs and two health sub-centres. A total of 64 health facilities have received the LaQshya certification - 10 government medical college hospitals, 21 district headquarters hospitals, 27 sub-district hospitals, five community health centres and one urban community health centre. A total of 16 institutions received the MusQan certification for a child-friendly facility based services from birth to the children aged up to 12 years
The Minister also said that the Union government had started NQAS certification in 2012. The certification was granted on the basis of infrastructure, medical services, maintenance and satisfaction of patients. A total of 69 NQAS certificates were received in nine years till May 2021. After the DMK came to power in May 2021, there was an 11-fold rise in the number of certifications awarded for the State, with a total of 755 certifications in 3.5 years, he added. This showed the extent of efforts taken to improve the quality of health services by this government, he said.
He also mentioned that the Health department is granting an incentive amount to the institutions - Rs. 10,000 per bed for district headquarters hospitals and sub-district hospitals, Rs. 3,00,000 for PHCs and Rs. 18,000 for HSC. This amount would help to further improve the infrastructure and quality of services at the facilities.
Under LaQshya, which was started in 2017, 29 institutions were certified till 2021. This year alone, 64 certifications were awarded, he said.
Quoting data on medical tourism from Union Tourism Ministry, Mr. Subramanian said 15 lakh persons from over 70 countries sought healthcare in Tamil Nadu in a year. The State attracted 25% of the total number of persons from abroad who sought healthcare in the country.
Among others, Member of Parliament (Chennai South) Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Health Secretary Supriya Sahu and Mission Director of National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu Arun Thamburaj were present.
Published - January 21, 2025 08:03 pm IST
