The newly bifurcated state of Telagana is planning to introduce a healthcare policy to improvise the healthcare delivery in the state. Recently, the Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS) on behalf of health, medical and family welfare department of Telangana organised an interactive session on 'Health policy - to provide effective, efficient and affordable health services to the citizens' and invited suggestions from the healthcare experts on the same.

Experts informed that the healthcare sector in Telangana has been badly neglected particularly the primary health care (PHC) which is disorganised, staff do not know their precise duties, responsibilities and above all there is no accountability. So, it is important to bring in sound policies of resource management like HR, finance, material, equipment by prescribing accepted good management practices. The experts recommended ISO accreditation system for all institutions right from PHCs to CHCs, area hospitals, district hospitals and all teaching hospitals in the initial year, followed by NABH accreditation system for all teaching hospitals over the next 2-3 years.

Dr Satyanarayana, who was one of the participants in the event and an expert on healthcare sector said that accreditation system lays down the minimum standards prescribed for good clinical and management practices, ensures optimum utilisation of resources, brings in accountability in various cadres of staff with much desired patient satisfaction which is missing right now. A template model can be developed for each category of healthcare institutions and a set of staff could be trained from each district who in turn can train the staff of PHCs, CHCs and area hospitals in their respective districts.

He further informed NABH accreditation will improve the clinical standards in the teaching hospitals and ensure continuity of patient care, patient safety, patient rights, patient satisfaction with optimum utilisation of all hospital resources. Incidentally, all corporate hospitals in the city are NABH accredited and enjoying high credibility in the society together with good business turnover.

The healthcare experts also recommended to provide a common transport facility for each PHC and this vehicle could cater to the needs of each sub-center every day, thereby, can also cover all 10 sub-centers of PHC almost twice a month with added facility of transport to rush the emergencies to the PHC or other appropriate institution. This recommendation was suggested to improve the working conditions of Multi Purpose Health Workers (MPHWs) who are assigned the most critical duties of antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care, implementing all the 8 elements of Primary Healthcare including the most critical element of immunisation against all communicable diseases for mothers and infants. MPHWs have no transport, no proper storage facility for vaccines and hardly any personal security while working in the field.

The healthcare experts also suggested the appointment of suitable candidates for the position of non-medical administrators for PHCs, CHCs and area hospitals by considering the qualified candidates available in the market, viz., graduates with PG diploma in healthcare, hospital management who possess MHM, MBA (HCM). For first 10 years they could be grade II and subsequently grade I once they go to area hospital.