HYDERABAD: Telangana’s performance is a mixed bag in the recent Niti Aayog report on the performance of district hospitals in the country. The report has analysed nearly 707 hospitals in the country and is the first-ever pan-India assessment at the district level that analyses hospitals on 10 crucial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
In terms of Telangana’s performance, the main pitfalls are in terms of beds available and manpower. In both these KPIs, the State has fared far lower than the standard set by the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) and the national average.
According to the report, in Telangana, there are only 10 beds available per 1 lakh population, which is the third-lowest in the country. The IPHS standard maintains that there must be at least 22 beds, and the national average is 24 beds per lakh. Only Jharkhand and Bihar have lower figures than Telangana.
The report assessed manpower by calculating the ratio of doctors in district hospitals in proportion to the number of doctors specified by the IPHS norms. So while a ratio of 1 indicates adequate number of doctors, nationally, this ratio is 0.86 and Telangana fares much worse with a ratio of 0.67.
The ratio of nurses is even lower at 0.54 as against 1, whereas the national average is just slightly better at 0.60. However, in terms of number of paramedics, the State performed well with a ratio of 1.36 to 1. The State has also done exceptionally well in terms of providing basic support services like water, diet, electricity, postmortem facility etc., and has also aced in giving diagnostic services and core health services.
The report suggests a few measures to resolve the shortage of beds and manpower. One suggestion is to analyse and determine the number of patients who were denied admissions from the emergence department. To address staff shortage, the report suggests a periodic review of staff strength and regular recruitment. Any hospital equipped with 100-500 beds must have anywhere between 105-393 staff members, as per IPHS standards.
10 beds
In Telangana, there are only 10 beds available per 1 lakh population, which is the third-lowest in the country and also much below the national average of 24
key indicators to performance of Telangana's rural hospitals
