Muzaffarpur sadar hospital

Monthly rating of district-level hospitals will start next month to improve healthcare infrastructure in the state.

Health department sources said the purpose of the move is to encourage district-level health officials to strive hard for getting good rating for their hospitals.

According to the sources, the department would also look into the reasons behind dismal conditions of the hospitals that get poor rating. The sources said that the civil surgeons had already been provided with a list in which they were told about the points on which the rankings would have to be done. According to the plan, the civil surgeons have to make a committee, which will rank the hospitals in the district concerned. The committee has to submit its report to the State Health Society before 10th day of every month.

Sanjay Kumar, health secretary-cum-State Health Society executive director, said: “We have decided to issue monthly rating of the district-level government hospitals.”

Another official of the health department, who did not wish to be named, said: “There is already a system of ranking of the primary health centres. The condition of the district healthcare institutions, including sadar, sub-divisional and referral hospitals, is bound to improve with this step. If the district-level hospitals try to improve itself on the front of proving qualitative services to patients, it would ultimately bring down the load from the medical college hospitals where most of the cases are referred. This decision would definitely bear fruits.”

About the points on which the rating would be done, he added: “Sanitation, proper lighting arrangement, security services, plantation, proper availability of safe drinking water are some of the points on which ranking would be done. Whether the doctors wear apron and nameplate or not would also be the basis of ranking.”

Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, president, state chapter of Indian Medical Association, welcomed the decision.

“So far we have found that the health department has only punished officials because of their negligence of duty. Now, that the department has decided to honour officials for their good job, it would certainly boost the morale of those who are doing good job,” he said.

However former IMA president Arun Kumar Thakur was not very happy. “The decision would de-motivate officials working in those hospitals which would get poor ranking. It is not a fair decision at all. The health department should instead work on developing the infrastructure of the hospital.”

Ranjit Kumar, spokesperson, Bihar Health Services Association, echoed Thakur: “This decision aims to improve the quality of district-level healthcare institutions but I don’t think the decision would be able to achieve this aim at a time when most such hospitals are facing basic infrastructure related problem. There is not sufficient number of paramedics at PHCs.”