Centre unveils 3 new initiatives to bolster healthcare services

June 29 (IANS) In another bid to ensure healthcare for all, the government has unveiled three new initiatives which will play a major role in improving the quality of healthcare services in the country. These initiatives include virtual National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) assessment for Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAM); a new dashboard which will help health institutions in quickly monitoring compliance with respect to Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS); and a spot food licence and registration initiative for food vendors. Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, said the government has established over 1.73 lakh AAMs, doubled the number of medical colleges since 2014, increased the number of AIIMS from seven to 23 and more than doubled the number of PG and MBBS seats since 2014. “The government is committed to strengthening the healthcare system with more skilled human resources and quality infrastructure that can tackle both present and future medical challenges”, the minister noted. Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, said that the launch of the virtual NQAS assessment and dashboard “will lead to improvement in providing quality of healthcare in public health facilities while the launch of the spot food licence will enhance the Ease of Doing Business in India”. NQAS for Integrated Public Health Laboratories (IPHL) will improve the quality and competence of management and testing systems, which will positively impact the reliability of test results. The launch of the spot food licence initiative is a ground-breaking new functionality for the instant issuance of licences and registrations through the Food Safety and Compliance System (FoSCoS). FoSCoS is a pan-India IT platform designed to address all food safety regulatory needs. Minister Patel said the government is working hard on building a robust and quality healthcare infrastructure by 2047, in accordance with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s vision.