Health Ministry set to begin work on integrating health portals

In order to reduce the number of health portals and enable more timely data analysis, the National Health Mission (NHM) is set to begin work on integrating health portals, officials said at the National Summit on Good and Replicable Practices and Innovation in Public Healthcare System.

 

"The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already started work on the integration of portals and will soon share the first model designed," said Aradhana Patnaik, mission director, NHM.

 

This comes after work was initiated to integrate the Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) portal, which monitors the NHM and other health programmes, with other existing portals of the Union Health Ministry.

 

Patnaik added that the NHM had organised four regional conferences in financial year (FY) 2024-25, focusing on operationalisation and ensuring the delivery of twelve service packages at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs), as well as National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) and Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) certifications for public health facilities.

 

There are currently 200,988 public health facilities in India, according to the IPHS portal. This includes district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community health centres (CHCs), primary health centres (PHCs), and other sub-centres.

 

"So far, around 30,000 facilities have been certified under NQAS, while 95 per cent of public health facilities in India have been assessed as per the IPHS," Patnaik said.

 

Addressing the summit, Health Minister J P Nadda said that the government remains focused on ensuring quality and affordable healthcare services for the people.

 

The National Summit aims to document best practices and innovations adopted by states and Union Territories (UTs) to address public health challenges and serve as a knowledge-sharing platform.

 

"A total of 165 entries were submitted and selected for oral presentations after a thorough review and elimination of duplicates."

 

Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the National Summit would be used to discuss measures that are replicable and scalable at a national level.

 

"The focus will remain on capacity building of health professionals, Jan Bhagidari, and optimal utilisation of resources for tackling health challenges," she added.

 

100-day intensified anti-TB programme extended to 455 districts: Nadda

 

Health Minister J P Nadda on Friday announced that the Centre’s 100-day intensified anti-tuberculosis (TB) programme has now been extended to 455 districts.

 

Launched on December 7, 2024, the programme originally covered 347 high-focus districts across 33 states and Union Territories (UTs) to address TB mortality challenges in India.

 

Nadda added that around 500,000 new TB patients have been detected under the programme. He also indicated that states and UTs have now included all aspirational districts and blocks to achieve TB elimination by 2025.

 

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest Global Tuberculosis Report 2023, India tops the list of 30 high-burden TB countries.

 

The report stated that India accounts for 26 per cent of the global TB burden. According to a recent parliamentary response, India had 2.55 million (25.5 lakh) TB patients in 2023.

 

India has set 2025 as its target year for TB elimination, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target.