New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) Niti Aayog member V K Paul on Thursday emphasised on the pivotal role of district hospitals in creating healthier communities and said despite their crucial role in providing advanced secondary care, there are unfortunately gaps. In his foreword of Niti Aayog's report titled 'Best Practices in the Performance of District Hospitals', Paul said to make health for all a reality, there is a need to ensure that every citizen has access to safe and reliable health services. "V K Paul emphasised on the pivotal role of district hospitals 'in creating healthier communities, providing a wide spectrum of healthcare services that caters to all individuals of the population," an official statement said. Quoting Paul, the statement said the district hospital performance assessment exercise undertaken by Niti Aayog is an important step in that direction. "Despite their crucial role in providing advanced secondary care, there are unfortunately gaps, be it shortage of human resources, capacities, utilisation and service uptake," the Niti Aayog member said. Government think tank Niti Aayog on Thursday released a performance assessment report of district hospitals in India, titled 'Best Practices in the Performance of District Hospitals'. The report is an outcome of collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and WHO India. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India, conducted the on-ground data validation.

According to the statement, the assessment framework covers 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across the domains of structure and output. A total of 707 district hospitals across all states and union territories participated in the performance assessment. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) data for the year 2017–18 has been used as baseline for this exercise. The statement said the framework classifies hospitals in three categories: small hospitals (less than or equal to 200 beds), mid-sized hospitals (between 201–300 beds) and large hospitals (more than 300 beds).

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It further said overall, 75 district hospitals across 24 states and union territories emerged as top performers on indicators ranging from availability of beds, medical and paramedical staff, core health and diagnostic testing services to outputs such as bed occupancy rate and number of surgeries per surgeon.

The statement said the report also highlights some key issues faced by the health system and provides some sustainable solutions to strengthen the condition of district hospitals in the country.

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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)