80% of Public Health Facilities in India Below Standard: Government Survey

NEW DELHI: A recent government survey has revealed that nearly 80% of public health facilities in India fail to meet the basic standards for infrastructure, staff, equipment, and other essential criteria set by the government. This alarming information comes from a self-assessment exercise conducted by the government, where public health facilities from various states and Union Territories (UTs) under the National Health Mission (NHM) were asked to provide details about their resources, such as the number of doctors, nurses, and basic medical equipment available.

India has over two lakh public healthcare facilities, including district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centers, primary health centers, and Ayushman Arogya Mandir (formerly sub-health centers) that fall under the NHM, a key government scheme. According to data shared by the government on the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) dashboard, 40,451 of these facilities submitted key statistics about their operations using the Open Data Kit, a digital tool developed by the health ministry.

The results showed that only 8,089 facilities, or about 20%, scored 80% or higher, which is the threshold to be considered IPHS compliant. This means these facilities had the necessary infrastructure, human resources, drugs, diagnostics, and equipment to provide essential services. On the other hand, 17,190 facilities (42%) scored less than 50%, while the remaining 15,172 facilities scored between 50% and 80%. All these details are publicly available on the IPHS dashboard.

A senior health ministry official explained that the self-assessment and its real-time monitoring aim to ensure that health facilities maintain the required standards of infrastructure, equipment, and human resources. This is expected to lead to better health outcomes and promote a healthier and more equitable society. The government aims to make 70,000 health institutions IPHS compliant within the first 100 days of the new government’s formation.

“The goal of this self-assessment exercise is to identify gaps and encourage states and UTs to address them with full support from the Centre, thereby improving the quality of services provided to the public,” said a senior health ministry official. She added that self-assessment is just the first step, and the Centre also plans to conduct surprise inspections to verify the claims made by health facilities against the IPHS benchmarks.

While the IPHS evaluates health facilities for basic services, the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) provide a higher level of assessment, rating facilities based on best practices such as the availability of essential medicines, equipment, waste management, infection control practices, support services, and patient rights. The official mentioned that while NQAS assessments for district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centers, and primary health centers will continue to be conducted physically, a new provision for virtual assessment has been introduced for Ayushman Arogya Mandir, which constitutes the largest number of public health facilities under NHM.

The Centre covers 60% of the expenditure for public health facilities under the NHM, with the remaining costs borne by the states.