Staff Reporter
Panaji
A total of 16 healthcare facilities in Goa are National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certified as on October 31,
2024.
The Centre implemented NQAS, a comprehensive framework established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare aimed at ensuring and enhancing the quality of public healthcare services.
Initially, the standards were applied for district hospitals, aiming to ensure that services are safe, patient-centric and of assured quality. Subsequently, these standards were extended to sub-district hospitals, community health centres, Ayushman Arogya Mandir-Urban Primary Health Centres, AAM- Primary Health Centres, and AAM Sub-Centres.
For improving the quality of healthcare services in the country through NQAS, support is provided for capacity-building for healthcare providers in NQAS-related activities and training, certification, and deployment of assessors for assessments at state and national levels.
Financial aid is provided to address gaps in achieving NQAS certification, and public health facilities that attain the certification are incentivised to sustain and improve quality
standards.
Furthermore, financial support is also extended for deploying dedicated human resources for quality, operationalising state and district quality assurance units and conducting state and national-level NQAS assessments.
Additionally, National Health Mission (NHM) facilitates the sponsorship of candidates for the Post Graduate Diploma in Health Care Quality Management (PGDHQM) programme offered by TISS, which is aligned with the objectives of NQAS.
