Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh are the top five states in terms of the absolute number of healthcare facilities verified in the Health Facility Register (HFR), according to data available on the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) dashboard.
However, three out of these five states lag behind in terms of saturation compared to facilities enumerated in the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) data, which was set up in 2018 to collect data from all public and private healthcare institutions across the country.
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The HFR is a new repository of health facilities that aims to create a national digital health register of both public and private health facilities across the country. These include hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories, imaging centres, and pharmacies of modern and traditional systems of medicine.
Out of the top five states in terms of verified healthcare facilities in the HFR, only Karnataka and Rajasthan have covered more than 50 per cent of the institutions under the NHRR database.
Karnataka, in fact, is the only state to have both the highest number of verified facilities in the country at 60,711 and 100 per cent saturation of the facilities in the state according to NHRR data.
It is followed by Tripura and Chhattisgarh at 81.2 per cent and 69.1 per cent coverage saturation, respectively.
Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, is the second-best performing state in terms of absolute numbers with 59,438 verified facilities, but this only covers 33.3 per cent of the state’s 178,715 facilities in the NHRR dataset.
Similarly, the coverage of verified facilities in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh stands at 14.7 per cent and 48.9 per cent, respectively.
At the bottom of the list are states like Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi with the lowest levels of facility coverage.
While Delhi has verified 1,590 facilities or 4.3 per cent out of 37,228 facilities in the NHRR dataset, Tamil Nadu’s coverage stands at 2.3 per cent. It has verified only 1,694 out of 73,941 facilities in the state, according to NHRR data.
Odisha, with just six facilities verified out of 16,867, stands last on the list.
Low saturation rates, a persistent issue
“Low saturation rates under the HFR is an issue affecting the timely implementation of the register in many states, with many public health facilities still awaiting registration in some states,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.
Addressing this issue, the National Health Authority (NHA), which is also the implementing body of the ABDM, wrote to all state governments in August 2024, urging them to fast-track the registration of state-run public health facilities.
“NHA also offers a solution for bulk uploading of public facilities in the ABDM ecosystem by state mission directors. In this regard, it is requested that you either make use of the bulk upload feature or at least convey instructions to all state government-owned institutions to get themselves registered,” the communication by Dr Basant Garg, additional CEO, NHA, to all state governments had stated.
An official added that the government had previously asked states to expedite the verification process for registered health institutions, as verification is important to ensure that these hospitals are not fraudulent.
As of October 2, 338,177 facilities have been verified on the HFR, of which 56.94 per cent are government facilities and 43.06 per cent are privately owned.
First Published: Oct 02 2024 | 6:54 PM IST
