Niti Aayog today released the first-ever performance assessment report of district hospitals across the country documenting some of the best practices of the top-performing hospitals across 10 indicators.

A total of 707 district hospitals across all States and Union Territories participated in the performance assessment. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) data for 2017 18 was used as the baseline for this exercise.

Overall, 75 district hospitals across 24 States and Union Territories emerged as top performers on indicators ranging from availability of beds, medical and paramedical staff, core health and diagnostic testing services to outputs such as bed occupancy rate and the number of surgeries per surgeon.

The report highlights some key issues faced by the health system and provides some sustainable solutions to strengthen the condition of the district hospitals, primarily involving improving data reporting in HMIS, suggesting such performance assessment exercises to bring about greater accountability for health care services in district hospitals.

Niti Aayog member Dr. V K Paul in a Foreword to the report emphasized the pivotal role of district hospitals “in creating healthier communities, providing a wide spectrum of healthcare services that caters to all individuals of the population.”

He said despite their crucial role in providing advanced secondary care, there are unfortunately gaps, be it the shortage of human resources, capacities, utilization, and service uptake. To make “health for all” a reality and to ensure that every citizen has access to safe and reliable health services, these gaps must be closed.

The report will mark a major shift in the healthcare delivery system towards data-driven governance and takes the system closer to communities and people availing health services.

The entire objective of the exercise is to pave the way for a more informed understanding of healthcare services available in different regions.

Niti Aayog has prepared the report in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and WHO India. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India, conducted the on-ground data validation.