Quality drive at govt health units runs into ‘missing data’ problem

New Delhi: The Union government has doubled down on attempts to enforce quality at government-run health facilities after a recent review meeting heard that state governments were supplying “missing, inconsistent and outdated” data, holding back the Centre’s efforts.

Accurate data is needed for the Center to roll out National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification, a set of standards for assessing and certifying the quality of public health facilities in India.

The National Health Mission’s (NHM) funding for states and union territories is conditional on their health facilities getting the necessary NQAS certification.

Seized of the issue, the Union health ministry is asking all states and union territories to promptly update their health facility information on the National Identification Number (NIN) portal–the central repository for all hospital data.

The problem has left the Centre facing difficulties mapping health facility data on the SaQsham portal, which is essential for issuing NQAS certification. The portal requires accurate and complete hospital data, including location details and a unique NIN ID.

According to a letter from the health ministry, the issue was a key challenge highlighted during the NQAS implementation review meeting.

“The SaQsham Portal, designed to digitize and streamline the NQAS certification, relies on accurate and complete facility-level data, including block name, taluka, district, and unique NIN ID, sourced via APIs from the NIN Portal,” said the letter sent to all states and union territories.

“However, observations reveal that data on the NIN ID Portal is often “missing, inconsistent, or outdated,” which is hampering the ability of States/UTs to effectively map their health facilities and consequently delaying certification and reporting activities under NQAS,” said the letter seen by Mint.

To boost healthcare quality, the government has mandated NQAS certification for all public health facilities, including district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centers (both rural and urban), along with Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, formerly known as Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centres, that provide primary healthcare services to all citizens.

The health ministry is working towards certifying 50% of these facilities by the end of 2025, with a broader goal of certifying all of them by December 2026.

Out of 175,000 health facilities targeted for quality certification by the next year, only 22,787 had achieved NQAS certification by December last year.

According to a Lancet report from 2018, India could potentially save a significant number of lives by improving the quality of healthcare. The study indicated that about 1.6 million deaths each year in the country are linked to substandard care, and that providing quality healthcare could prevent three out of five of these fatalities. There haven’t been any newer studies in India on this specific issue since then.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.