Jammu and Kashmir National Health Mission on Wednesday declared 248 public health facilities as Kayakalp-certified facilities for the financial year 2023-24, officials said.
The Kayakalp Scheme has been launched to promote Swachhata and Hygiene in the public health facilities across the Union Territory of J&K.
According to official documents sent to the Director Health Services Kashmir, six District Hospitals including DH Gandhinagar, DH Pulwama, DH Poonch, DH Ramban, DH REasi, and JLNM Hospital Srinagar are among the certified facilities. Additionally, 28 Community Health Centres, 79 Primary Health Centres, 13 Urban Primary Health Centres, and 122 Health and Wellness Centres have also received Kayakalp certification.
This marks the first time such a significant number of health facilities have received Kayakalp certification in J&K. Notably, 169 health facilities were certified in 2022-23, followed by 73 in 2021-22, 50 in 2020-21, 36 in 2019-20, 28 in 2018-19, and 14 in 2017-18.
Under Kayakalp healthcare facilities undergo a three-tier assessment and the final assessment decides the winner for the health facility.
“Under the scheme, the facilities are subjected to three-tier assessments on various themes like hospital upkeep, sanitation and hygiene, waste management, infection control, support services, hygiene promotion, beyond hospital boundary, eco-friendly,” an NHM official said.
The Kayakalp Award scheme has not only encouraged public health facilities to maintain cleanliness but also created healthy competition among the public health facilities, which has further improved and enabled the environment to improve the quality of care, he said.
“The efforts of the facilities have been appreciable in implementing Kayakalp, which could be observed by the improvement in the number of facilities qualified under Kayakalp over the years,” the communication mentions. It is desired that the UT of J&K shall progress during the next financial year as well under Kayakalp.
The scheme aims to recognise such health institutions that show exemplary performance in adhering to standard protocols of cleanliness and infection control.
“It is aimed to inculcate a culture of ongoing assessment and peer review of performance related to hygiene, cleanliness and infection control which create and share sustainable practices related to improved cleanliness in Public Health Facilities linked to positive health outcomes,” it said.
Kayakalp Award Scheme was launched on May 15, 2015, as an extension of the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, an initiative to improve and promote cleanliness, hygiene, waste management and infection control practices in public health care facilities and incentivize the exemplary performing public healthcare facility.
