National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), a not-for-profit initiative from Quality Council of India has inked a pact with the Australian government sponsored Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) to bring in Australian model to strengthen progress of Indian healthcare accreditation. Representatives of NABH, Austrade and the office of the Consulate General of India, Sydney, visited the ACHS headquarters in Sydney to mark the agreement on July 4, 2006.

This world class accreditation programme known as the "Evaluation and Quality Improvement Programme" (EquIP) will now be available to Indian hospitals at a cost that is less than the membership fee of any other international programmes. About 15 hospitals have already evinced interest to enable world class quality healthcare delivery and patient safety. As of today, the Australian framework will be recognised in India by QCI.

The highlight of the joint programme is that it covers 21 speciality areas of clinical care with each set having 245 individual indicators. These indicators have been developed over years of research to capture only the effective data needed for clinical governance and avoid redundancy.

NABH officials who visited Australian hospitals were impressed with the successful implementation of the accreditation programme in both private and public hospitals. Going beyond private healthcare providers, the NABH accreditation will revitalize some of the large healthcare groups like CGHS, PSU hospitals, government hospitals and defence hospitals among others, said Girdhar Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India

ACHS will train the assessors as per international standards which will enhance the credibility of the NABH accreditation globally. The two will jointly participate in site surveys during accreditation. NABH will be able to draw from the over 30 years of learning's of ACHS and its accreditation will be simultaneously recognised by International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) for both its standards and accreditation program. Both ACHS and ISQua have established themselves in the world healthcare delivery system and ISQua accredited standards are followed in over 25 countries including US, UK, Germany, Japan and many European countries.

"The accreditation on offer from NABH is not just affordable, but also sustainable in the long term, said Somnath Das, Co-Chair, Accreditation Committee, NABH.

"The collaboration not only involves Australia providing services and support to India in developing a local program. Ultimately the Australian framework will benefit from the lessons of our colleagues in India - a country with around 20,000 hospitals," stated Dr Michael Hodgson AM, President, ACHS International Pty Ltd.