In order to promote competition between public hospitals, Niti Aayog decided to classify district hospitals on the basis of their performance on health indicators. There are about 700 district hospitals across the country to provide secondary health services to people.
A joint exercise by the Ministry of Health and Niti Aayog, the index - Health of our hospitals - launched by Vice President Niti Arvind Panagariya will monitor the performance of district hospitals.
The move came after Niti Aayog estimated that although large funds are allocated to these hospitals that play a critical role in health care delivery, there is no comprehensive system for assessing their performance against health outcomes
The index will also capture, for the first time, patient feedback. "The framework for classifying district hospitals, with emphasis on achieving key health outcomes, should foster a spirit of competition among them, and promote a culture of cooperation through the sharing of good practice", said An official. He said: "This will also help to identify facilities that need to be focused and those that need to be encouraged by states."
