Govt formulates plan to get nine hospitals NABH accreditation
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, August 2:IF all goes well, nine government hospitals in the State will boast national accreditation within a year. The State Government will initiate a nine-month pilot project next week to upgrade facilities and services provided by government hospitals in Gandhinagar, Sola, Mehsana, Valsad, Bhuj, Junagadh, Naroda, Godhra and Rajkot with a view to get them accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI).
A preliminary study of the nine hospitals has already been conducted by Astron, a consultancy services company which will work closely with the QCI and prepare the hospitals for accreditation.
Astron MD Dr YP Bhatia has presented the study reports to the Department of Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Dr Amarjit Singh and its Principal Secretary Rita Teaotia. Based on the preliminary study, an action plan is being formulated for each of the nine hospitals to help them upgrade structure, infrastructure and healthcare. The action plan will come into effect within a week.
According to the preliminary study, all the hospitals are presently short of paramedical staff. While Sola and Rajkot hospitals have vacancies for doctors in radiology departments, Junagadh and Gandhinagar hospitals are in the process of renovating their buildings.
The study has found that the government hospitals do not have proper signages, public address systems, complete and updated medical records, latest equipment, upgraded fire safety and infection control methods and smooth patient traffic. The blood banks at the hospitals also need to be restructured and there is need to introduce animal and fly-proofing, the study states.
As per the action plan, in-house training will be provided to the hospital staff. The hospitals will enter into public-private partnerships (PPP) with private surgeons and specialists to fulfill staff requirements. Peripheral services such as biomedical waste disposal, laundry, catering and housework will be outsourced to increase efficiency.
The Government’s plan is to make Bhuj and Junagadh hospitals ready for a QCI review in six months’ time, Sola and Mehsana hospitals in eight months, Gandhinagar hospital in nine months and the Rajkot hospital in 11 months’ time.
“It is not easy to bring healthcare provided by government hospitals at par with that provided by corporate hospitals,” says QCI Secretary General Girdhar Gyani. “The Gujarat Government’s enthusiasm for the project has convinced us that even the long-neglected public healthcare sector can be revived again.”
According to a senior official in the Department of Health and Family Welfare: “There will be intra-hospital and inter-hospital adjustments to optimise the utilisation of services and equipment.”
However, some medicos are sceptical of the exercise. “If the ‘adjustments’ are akin to those made at the Rajkot medical college in January, then the exercise may turn out to be an eyewash. When the Pandit Deendayal Upaddhyaya College (Rajkot) sought MCI recognition to double its seat capacity, half of the required staff were sent to the college on deputation from government hospitals in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. As the temporarily transferred doctors are not being relocated to their base hospitals, a number of them have begun putting in their papers,” says a doctor from the BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad, who was sent to Rajkot medical college on deputation seven months ago.
Who’s applied…
THE nine government hospitals in Gandhinagar, Sola, Mehsana, Valsad, Bhuj, Junagadh, Naroda, Godhra and Rajkot are among 42 hospitals which have applied for NABH’s accreditation. The NABH accreditation programme began in February, 2006. Till now, seven hospitals from across the country have received NABH accreditation. They include, (Delhi), Max Devki Devi Heart and Vascular Institute (Delhi), Moolchand Hospital (Delhi), Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences and BM Birla Heart Research Centre (Kolkata). The NABH has a checklist of 505 regulations that a hospital must follow if it seeks to be accredited.
Source: Indian Express