There are no nurses and doctors… Medical facilities are poor in 80% of the hospitals in the country, revealed in a government survey

Information obtained through digital devices

The government had created a digital tool called 'Indian Public Health Standard' (IPHS) to collect information from hospitals. Through this tool, it was found that out of 40,451 hospitals that provided information, only 8,089 hospitals met the standards of IPHS. That is, only these hospitals have basic facilities, doctors, nurses and equipment to treat patients. According to the report, 42% of the hospitals scored less than 50% on the standards of IPHS. The remaining 15,172 hospitals got marks between 50 to 80%. The government has made all this information public on the dashboard of IPHS.

That is why the government prepared a report

A senior official of the Union Health Ministry said that this report has been prepared to find out what are the shortcomings in the hospitals. He said, 'Our aim is to ensure that all government hospitals have basic facilities, equipment and doctors, so that patients can get better treatment.' The center's goal is to make 70,000 government hospitals compliant with IPHS standards within 100 days of the formation of the new government. A senior official said, 'We are giving full support to the states to improve the hospitals. Our aim is to improve the quality of treatment in government hospitals.'

Officials will conduct surprise inspection of hospitals

The official said that the government will also conduct surprise inspections of hospitals. This will ensure whether the information given by the hospitals to the government is correct or not. Apart from IPHS, there is also 'National Quality Assurance Standard' (NQAS) which evaluates hospitals. NQAS looks at standards like availability of medicines, waste management, infection control and patients' rights in hospitals.

Government is taking steps for better facilities

The official said that the NQAS evaluation of district hospitals, community health centers and primary health centers will be done as before. But, the evaluation of Ayushman Arogya Mandir will now be done virtually. Most of the Ayushman Arogya Mandirs come under NHM. The central government bears 60 percent of the expenses of hospitals under NHM while the remaining 40 percent is borne by the state governments.