MCD to upgrade nine municipal hospitals under Kayakalp scheme

Delhi’s municipal hospitals are set to undergo a quality upgrade this year, with the MCD bringing nine facilities under the Centre’s Kayakalp programme and expanding critical care infrastructure, officials said on Saturday.

The initiative is part of the civic body’s broader effort to align its healthcare facilities with national quality benchmarks through improvements in cleanliness, infection control, waste management, patient safety, infrastructure, and service delivery, they said.

“Hospitals will be required to secure more than 80 per cent marks under the Kayakalp assessment framework to qualify for incentive,” an official said.

Launched by the Union Health Ministry in 2015, Kayakalp is a quality-improvement and incentive programme for public health facilities that evaluates hospitals on parameters such as sanitation and patient safety.

“We are looking at Kayakalp not as a standalone exercise but as part of a larger quality continuum. The objective is to build systems that improve patient care, safety and service delivery across hospitals,” an official said.

As part of the initiative, the civic body plans to introduce mechanised sweeping across hospitals, expand its zero-waste-to-landfill programme and strengthen compliance with patient-safety and disaster-management protocols.

The nine hospitals identified for the initiative are Hindu Rao Hospital, Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital (MVID), Mata Gujri Hospital, Swami Dayanand Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, Mrs Girdhari Lal Maternity Hospital, Balak Ram Hospital, Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, and Veer Savarkar Arogya Sansthan.

Several ageing hospital buildings will also undergo refurbishment and infrastructure upgrades, officials said. “The MCD has already digitised outpatient department (OPD) registration services across its hospitals and operationalised the e-Hospital platform to streamline patient records and administrative processes. It is also planning to provide tablets to field workers to improve data collection, monitoring and service delivery,” the official said.

Officials further said the civic body is simultaneously working towards implementation of the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS), a comprehensive framework for assessing public healthcare facilities on clinical services and hospital management. As part of that process, hospitals are being prepared for LaQshya certification, a quality certification programme focused on labour rooms and maternity operation theatres.

“The idea is to progressively move hospitals towards higher quality benchmarks. Kayakalp is one component, but the larger goal is to strengthen systems and create facilities that meet national standards,” the official said.

Infrastructure expansion is also planned at key facilities. According to officials, a 100-bed critical care block is proposed at Swami Dayanand Hospital, while a 50-bed critical care block is planned at Hindu Rao Hospital.

The projects are expected to augment critical care capacity in the municipal healthcare system and improve preparedness for medical emergencies, they said.

Officials said the quality-improvement measures are being implemented in phases and are expected to cover various aspects of hospital functioning.