The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday launched virtual systems to aid in providing quality certifications for healthcare facilities, monitoring compliance of prescribed standards of healthcare delivery, and improving ease of doing business for food vendors.
The systems include inauguration of a virtual National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification assessment for Ayushman Arogya Mandirs Sub-Centres (AAM-SCs), new dashboard for implementation of Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) guidelines in all healthcare facilities, and introduction of instant licence facility for food vendors.
“The new initiatives represent a significant innovation in the quality assurance framework for public health facilities as a time and cost saving measure”, a senior official said.
Speaking on the new virtual NQAS assessment for AAM-SCs, Aradhana Patnaik, additional secretary and mission director, National Health Mission (NHM), said that more than 140,000 sub-centres will now be assessed virtually as opposed to physical assessments, which took more time and resources to undertake.
“Around 10 per cent of virtually assessed sub-centres would still randomly be selected for a physical assessment to ensure that quality standards are in place,” she said.
The new dashboard will quantify implementation of IPHS guidelines by various healthcare facilities in the country. Introduced in 2007 and updated periodically with the latest update in 2022, the guidelines set quality benchmarks for public health facilities from primary to secondary-level healthcare facilities.
“All healthcare facilities will be encouraged to self-assess themselves and identify gaps in implementation of quality standards as per IPHS guidelines,” Patnaik said.
The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced the launch of a new functionality for instant issuance of licences and registrations through the Food Safety and Compliance System (FoSCoS).
Instant or ‘tatkal’ issuance of licence or registration in select food businesses under the FSSAI was also a part of the health ministry’s 100-day programme.
“The tatkal issuance system will simplify licensing and registration processes for food vendors and offer them an enhanced user experience,” FSSAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) G Kamala Vardhana Rao said.
The ministry also released NQAS guidelines for Integrated Public Health Laboratories (IPHL) located at district hospitals.
“Standard guidelines will improve the quality and competence of management and testing systems at IPHLs, positively impacting the reliability of test results and helping gain the trust of clinicians, patients and the public regarding lab outputs,” Patnaik said.
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