Kayakalp awards felicitate Public Health Facilities for maintaining high standards of sanitation and hygiene

“We want to change the image of the public health facilities. The thrust of Kayakalp is to inculcate culture of cleanliness for gaining the trust and confidence of community in these facilities.” This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare during the national felicitation ceremony of Kayakalp awardees (2016-17) for their work in maintaining high standards of sanitation and hygiene in public health facilities.

Shri Nadda congratulated the awardees and said that many good practices have been initiated like emphasis on good cleaning practices, pest control, measuring infection control etc. and healthy competition amongst healthcare facilities is motivating them to go an extra mile in pursuit of excellence.  He further added that the zest and zeal shown by the hospitals and their collective efforts in improving cleanliness, hygiene and infection control practices should continue unabated.

Referring to the ICT based application ‘MeraAspataal (My Hospital)’ that captures patients’ feedback about their experience in the health facilities on the services that they received or sought to receive, ShriNadda said that the Ministry is seeking the feedback of people digitally to improve the quality of services at the health centres. “Patient satisfaction is the ultimate test for assessing quality of services provided by a healthcare facility and we are now making a paradigm shift by seeking their views on quality of experience in a public healthcare facility. This will help us improving the experience of people at a health facility,” ShriNadda elaborated.

The Health Minister also informed that to complement and leverage the efforts and achievements made so far, MOHFW have launched a joint initiative with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation- Swachh Swasth Sarvatra. Under this initiative Community Health Centres (CHCs) in Open Defecation Free (ODF) blocks will be supported to achieve Kayakalp certification and Gram Panchayat of Kayakalp Primary Health Centres (PHCs) will be prioritized to become ODF. “Improved sanitation practices of the community are expected to complement the high level of sanitation and hygiene in the health care facility, and consequently reduce the disease burden related to water borne diseases,” Shri Nadda said.

The Kayakalp scheme launched in 2015 covered 10 Central Government Institutions and District Hospitals in the year of launch. This year the scheme expanded coverage to 16 Central Government institutions including 6 new AIIMS and all Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs). Thus, in the current year the Kayakalp assessment in States covered over 700 District hospitals, over 5,000 CHCs and over 25,000 PHCs. The system adopted for central Government institutions follows a two tier assessment process of internal and external assessment followed by decision by a Jury constituted in the Ministry. Eight (8) external assessment teams were constituted for assessment of the 16 Central Government institutions. In the states, Kayakalp awards are declared based on score arrived at through a three tier assessment system of internal, peer and external assessment.

At the function, Shri J P Nadda released the Kayakalp Coffee Table book and also gave away the awards to the winners under various categories. Under the Central Government Hospitals category, the first prize of Rs 5 Crore was given to the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong got the second prize of Rs 3 Crores and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh received the third prize of Rs 1 Crore. Commendation awards of Rs 50 lakh each were given to AIIMS, Raipur, AIIMS, Jodhpur and National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD), Delhi. Shri J P Nadda also felicitated the District Hospitals, PHCs and CHCs for winning the awards in their respective states and union territory.

Also present at the function were Shri C.K. Mishra, Secretary (Health), Dr. Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Dr. Arun Kumar Panda, AS&MD (NHM), ShriSanjeeva Kumar, AS (Health), ShriManojJhalani, Joint Secretary (Policy) and representatives from the states and union territories.