Karnataka sets timelines for hospitals to implement National Quality Assurance Standards

The State Health Ministry, which sets targets for implementing national quality assurance standards (NQA), has directed the presidents of all state hospitals to reach the expected targets within three months.

NQAS is a comprehensive framework developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to improve the quality of health services in public health facilities. These standards, which are valid for various health services (regional hospitals, community health centers, primary health centers and urban primary health centers), focus on areas such as service delivery, patient rights, inputs, support services, clinical care, infection control, quality management and results. The aim is to provide high quality health care services throughout the country by providing a structured approach to quality improvement and evaluation.

An order given by the Karnataka government on July 8, all government health facilities that do not comply with the deadline for application, Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (EU-Bark) program will be disqualified from the incentives provided under the program, he said.

If the standards are not applied even after six months, a statement will be recorded in the annual performance report of the medical, medical staff and personnel of the hospitals and the action will be taken for the transfer.

Even if there is no progress even after nine months, the annual salary increase of all chief medical, medical staff and personnel working in such health institutions will be hidden.

According to the order, the supervisors and personnel of the health centers that do not make progress despite all these measures will be held responsible for low quality maintenance and treatment.