Union Health Minister to launch 3 initiatives to bolster public health facilities

New Delhi, June 27: Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda is scheduled to unveil three public health initiatives in the national capital on Friday, in the presence of Ministers of State Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao and Anupriya Singh Patel. The Union Minister is set to launch a virtual National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) assessment for Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAM), a dashboard for Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) and spot food licence scheme for food vendors, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The virtual NQAS assessment for AAM sub-centres will represent a significant innovation in the quality assurance framework for public health facilities as a time and cost saving measure. Through this system, the virtually assessed health AAM-sub centre will be conferred with the NQAS certificate.

The IPHS guidelines, introduced in 2007 and updated periodically with the latest update in 2022, set quality benchmarks for public health facilities from primary to secondary level healthcare facilities. To expedite this process, the ministry has developed a dashboard that will aid the national, state and district health institutions and health facilities in quickly monitoring compliance with respect to IPHS standards and taking action accordingly.

A new functionality for the instant issuance of licenses and registrations through the Food Safety and Compliance System (FoSCoS) will also be launched. FoSCoS is a state-of-the-art, pan-India IT platform designed to address all food safety regulatory needs. This innovative system simplifies the licensing and registration processes, offering an enhanced user experience.