46 hospitals certified under the Laqshya Scheme

Bengaluru: The government has accredited 46 state hospitals out of a total of 125 under the Laqshya scheme of the National Health Mission (NHM), which aims to improve intra and postpartum maternity care in hospitals. According to Dr Rajkumar N, the State Deputy Director of Maternal Health, the scheme has been functioning for three years but was placed on hold due to the pandemic, and the inspection resumed in December 2021. Hospitals with more than 100 deliveries each month were chosen.

He said that hospitals are provided a checklist of services such as the required amount of medicines, labour tables, C-section births in the middle of the night, and so on. The checklist is used to guarantee that the hospitals have as few gaps in facilities and infrastructure as possible before the assessment. A year later, a surveillance evaluation is performed to see if hospitals are still providing required services in accordance with the checklist.

So far, 46 hospitals have been accredited for demonstrating readiness using a checklist and confirming compliance with NHM standards. A few more certifications are pending and might arrive in the next month or two, with 125 hospitals anticipated to be certified by March 2023.

According to Dr. Shashikala, nodal officer of KC General Hospital, the effort was launched to improve the quality of labour rooms in all government hospitals, with the main goal of lowering maternal and newborn mortality/morbidity. Early detection of difficulties in the labour room is critical. She noted that KC General Hospital just undertook an assessment for national quality assurance requirements after qualifying at the state level last year.

According to the National Family Health Survey-5, the percentage of institutional births has grown. However, it has not resulted in a decrease in maternal and infant mortality or stillbirths. Inadequacies in the quality of care offered in health institutions are one of the key issues.