NITI Aayog health report: Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu outperform others
Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been ranked on top in overall health index, according to 'Healthy States, Progressive India' report released by NITI Aayog on Friday. "Our job was first to challenge states, secondly to do workshops with states and thirdly to put it in ranking. While historical ranking is important, it is very important for us to capture change per year. Best thing was that the eastern states Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have done very well. They have come fourth and fifth and have moved up the ladder very fast, banking on radical reforms," NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said. Major challenges for most States and UTs include the need to focus on addressing vacancies in key staff, establishment of functional district Cardiac Care Units (CCUs), quality accreditation of public health facilities and institutionalisation of Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS), the report said. Along with all large states focusing on all larger states need to focus on improving the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB), the report said. "The Health Index as a tool to leverage co-operative and competitive federalism to accelerate the pace of achieving health outcomes. It would also serve as an instrument for nudging states, union territories, and central ministries to a much greater focus on output and outcome based measurement of annual performance than is currently the practice," the NITI Aayog report said. The report emphasized on the need to improve data systems in the health sector, in terms of terms of representativeness of the priority areas, periodic availability for all states and union territories, and completeness for private sector service delivery. -PTC News
