DC Leh Santosh Sukhdeve reviews status of National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) implementation in Leh District

The Deputy Commissioner Leh, Santosh Sukhadeve convened a meeting to review the status of National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) implementation in health facilities in Leh District at VC Room, DC Office, Leh, on September 12.

During the meeting, the District Nodal Officer gave a detailed presentation on the implementation of NQAS and also briefed about the challenges faced for its certification. He mentioned that there are certain infrastructure related gaps which can affect the ability of facilities to meet the standards such as lack of separate male and female toilets, lack of ramps, lack of poor waste disposal system, lack of fire safety, lack of deep burial pits and so on. It was added that these gaps hinder the ability of healthcare facilities to fully comply with NQAS.

Further, he also mentioned about issues related to NOC or authorization certificates such as Licenses or Registration of Hospitals which lacks record of land to fulfill the process. Similarly, requirements of Pharmacy License, Blood Bank License, Biomedical Waste Management Authorization, Radiology Equipment License, Fire Safety Regulations, Water and Sanitation, Food Safety Compliance was also discussed during the meeting.

DC Leh, Santosh Sukhadeve directed the health department to give factual ground report of all the analysis to see what kind of interventions are needed. He also directed the department to prioritize the health facilities according to their need and intervene accordingly. He further added that the statutory compliance related to fire department, pollution department and electricity department should be recommended to facilities where it is possible to do so, to start the process. He adds that he will also hold a meeting with these departments to resolve the issues. He assured the department to resolve the gaps related to infrastructure.

In addition, the DC Leh instructed the department to identify all the facilities without any land records for registration so that paper works can be done on a fast-track basis. He directed all the BMOs to identify an official to be trained for NQAS training. He further instructed the BMOs to prioritized the area of concern accordingly to comply it at the earliest. DC Leh directed the department for improvement of health facilities and time bound NQAS certification.

The meeting was attended by Chief Medical Officer, Medical Superintendent SNM Hospital, District Nodal Officer and other officials from health department. BMOs from different villages attended the meeting through Video Conference.