Nagaland health units bag NQAS certification

e-Sanjeevani launched for Nagaland

Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 7

Three more health units from Nagaland bagged the national certification of public health facilities based on National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS).

Nagaland’s Health & Family Welfare Minister S Pangnyu Phom on Saturday, handed over the citation to those health units— Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC), Duncan Dimapur, Mongsenyimti Primary Health Centre (Mokokchung district) and UPHC, Burma Camp Dimapur.

NQAS was developed keeping in mind the specific requirements for public health facilities as well as global best practices. The standards are primarily meant for providers to assess their own quality for improvement through pre defined standards and to bring up their facilities for certification. It is currently available for District Hospitals, Community Health Centres, PHCs and UPHCs.

The NQAS are broadly arranged under 8 ‘Areas of Concern’– service provision, patient rights, inputs, support services, clinical care, infection control, quality management and outcome.

These standards are International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) accredited and meets global benchmarks in terms of comprehensiveness, objectivity, evidence and rigour of development.

‘Proud of your achievement’
“We are proud of you all for your achievement and your achievement should be an encouragement for other health facilities to participate in the programme,” Pangnyu said while addressing the state level felicitation programme here at Capital Convention Centre.

In Nagaland, Seikhazou UPHC is the first facility to be certified for NQAS in 2019.

Three additional facilities were certified for NQAS this year.

Pangnyu said that in alignment with the National Health Policy’s aim to ensure Universal Health Coverage, Ayushman Bharat was launched in 2018 with Health and Wellness Centre (HWC) and PMJAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) as its two strong pillars.

He said that Ayushman Bharat aims to bring a paradigm shift in the country by increasing health systems that are responsive to the increased demand of health seekers on prevention and treatment of diseases.

“We have completed four years of implementation of the prestigious Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres in Nagaland, thereby, bringing quality care closer to homes of community with the provision of expanded ranges of services,” the minister said.

Along with making health care services available, accessible and affordable to the local population at their door steps, it becomes more pertinent to ensure quality of care provided by health care providers. Therefore, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare begun its journey of ensuring quality across the public health facilities since 2013 with the launch of NQAP, he said.

Under the ambit of NQAP, standard of care for various levels of health facilities- DH, CHC, PHC and SC has been framed, he said

e-Sanjeevani tele consultation service launched
Also launching e-Sanjeevani Tele Consultation service for the state of Nagaland, the minister requested all the district officials to encourage the health care workers and general public to make use of the platform.

The minister said that USAID NISHTHA Jhpiego has been supporting the state in various digital interventions like Naga Teleheath, Tele Track, iLearn.

Naga telehealth- Telemedicine platform has been shifted to eSanjeevani which is an assisted tele consultation system, to alleviate the Urban-Rural divide in terms of health care services.

eSanjeevani is the first-ever online OPD (outpatient) consultation service offered by the government of India to citizens.
Started in November 2019, this scheme is run by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Also called the National Teleconsultation Service, it aims to provide healthcare services to patients in their homes. It includes a structured and safe teleconsultation between a doctor and a patient through online mode (eSanjeevani OPD).

Call for better performance in healthcare delivery
“You have done a commendable job,” conveyed Asangla Imti, secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Nagaland, to three health units who bagged certification of NQAS this year.

She called upon all the health units across Nagaland to assess their work for better performance in healthcare delivery system.

She also stressed on the need to know the main objectives of each programmes and schemes and improvise to the needs of the respective area.

Imti also called upon the health units to focus on ‘bottom- up planning’ to allow the department to flourish.

Meanwhile, she challenged the department and other stakeholders to work in unison for all the programmes and take the department to higher level of achievement and to give standard healthcare accessibility to the people of the state.

Dr Ashoke Roy, Director, Regional Resource Centre- North East from Guwahati said that Nagaland is the first state in the country to achieve the target given by the Government of India as far as certifications of Urban PHCs are concerned.

The programme also witnessed experience sharing from Dr Maongkala, medical officer of PHC Mongsenyimti, Dr Rose, medical officer UPHC Duncan, Dimapur and Dr Chamzai Newmai, medical officer, UPHC Burma Camp Dimapur.

The programme was chaired by Dr K Vikato Kinimi, principal director, Directorate of Health & Family Welfare while Dr Thorhusie Katiry, Mission Director, National Health Mission, Nagaland delivered welcome address. Vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Puse Liegise, State Programme Officer, National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), Nagaland.

Source: https://www.morungexpress.com/nagaland-health-units-bag-nqas-certification