Government To Launch First-Of-Its Kind Survey To List All Hospitals In The Country

The Union government is working on launching a nationwide census that will cover all healthcare providers in the country, as reported by The New Indian Express (TNIE). This first-of-its-kind survey, called the National Health Resource Repository, will cover primary, secondary as well as tertiary healthcare.

While primary healthcare involves the first contact of individuals with the health system (includes both public and private hospitals), secondary healthcare involves the second tier in the system hierarchy. Here patients, who have been referred by primary health centres, are treated by specialists in sophisticated health centres. Tertiary Healthcare is the third tier which provides specialised consultative care, either on the referral of primary and secondary healthcare centres. Dedicated Intensive Care Units (ICUs), advanced diagnostic support services etc., are of some of the services that differentiate the tertiary level from the others.

“Through the survey, all the establishments, government as well as private were asked to provide details such as geo-coordinates, working hours, details of employees and their educational qualification, details of physical infrastructure and, availability of medical services and diagnostic equipment and a host of other details,” a senior of the Union Health Ministry told TNIE. He added, “This is an important project to understand where our hospitals, particularly secondary and tertiary care centres, stand. The details could go a long way in fine-tuning the policy framework of the PM's Jan Aarogya Yojana.”