Secy reviews action plan regarding strengthening of DHs, CHCs as per Indian Public Health Standards

Jammu: Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar, on Friday chaired a meeting to discuss the action plan regarding strengthening District Hospitals and Community Health Centres as per Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) 2022 besides reviewing the status of branding of Health Wellness Centers.
Pertinently, IPHS is a set of standards that provide a uniform benchmark to assess the quality and functionality of public health facilities and was first framed in 2007 and then revised in 2012 and 2022. These standards provide guidance on the infrastructure, human resource, drugs, diagnostics, equipment, quality and governance requirements for delivering quality health services to the citizens with dignity and respect.
In an effort to improve the quality of services, National Health Mission J&K in collaboration with Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) has taken up the initiative to conduct rapid baseline assessment of all DHs and CHCs as per IPHS 2022.
Secretary discussed various interventions with the stakeholders present in the meeting for filling the identified gaps in various areas at the earliest so as to make these hospitals IPHS compliant. He directed both the Directors of Health Department to appoint Nodal Officers who shall prioritise the health facilities for making them IPHS compliant in shortest possible time. They shall also work out the financial implications for the same, so that proposals as per the actual gaps are included in annual plan in a phased manner, he added.
Secretary asked the concerned to take up implementation of Quality Assurance and service provision domains of IPHS guidelines 2022 in the first phase. He directed them that regular follow up meetings should be conducted to prepare and implement the time bound facility wise action plans for filling the gaps so that all the DHs/ CHCs are prepared for achieving various quality certifications like NQAS, LaQshya, MusQan and Kayakalp besides improving the quality of service provision in the identified health facilities for larger public good.
Bhupinder Kumar also reviewed the status of branding of Health & Wellness Centres. He asked the Chief Medical Officers to complete facade branding of all the HWCs by 20th of this month.
Earlier, Mission Director, National Health Mission, Ayushi Sudan, briefed the Secretary regarding main agenda points of the meeting. This was followed by detailed presentation by State Program Manager NIPI J&K on the findings of baseline assessment of CHCs and action plan for their strengthening along with the action taken report of findings of assessment of District Hospitals.
The meeting was attended by Director AYUSH, J&K, MD JKMSCL, Additional Secretary H&ME, Deputy Director of Health Services Jammu and Epidemiologist/ SSO Jammu while Director Finance, H&ME Department; Director Coordination, New Medical Colleges, J&K, Joint Director Planning H&ME Department, Chief Medical Officers, Medical Superintendents; State Program Manager NIPI J&K and Program Managers, NHM J&K participated online.