Thennur UPHC in Tiruchi gets NQAS certification

Urban Primary Health Centre in Tiruchi achieves NQAS certification for high-quality healthcare services, winning cash reward for excellence.

The Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) at Thennur in Tiruchi has received the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for upholding high standards of quality.

The UPHC secured 90.52% and fulfilled all requirements for the certification. The facility received accreditation for adhering to the highest standards in healthcare, especially in parameters such as preventive and curative services, providing services as per local needs, maintenance and upkeep of equipment and infrastructure, diagnostic services, newborn and childcare, immunisation, implementing strict hand hygiene for employees and asepsis, waste management etc. It is the sixth UPHC to receive NQAS certification in Tiruchi.

A national assessment team inspected the centre on June 9 and 10 for an assessment before certification was issued. Specialists assessed the quality of infrastructure, including services offered to expectant mothers and newborns, treatment for communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the cleanliness of the health centre that caters to the needs of the people residing in the locality.

As a result, the UPHC has won a cash reward of ₹3 lakh. About 25% of the prize money will be given as incentives to the healthcare workers at the centre, and the rest will be used for patient welfare and the development of the UPHC.

According to M. Vijay Chandran, City Health Officer, the UPHC caters to a population of 58,752 in the area, and around 90% of the people have been screened for non-communicable diseases.

The health centre, on an average, handles around 250 to 300 patients a day and conducts two deliveries a month. It has a doctor, four staff nurses, five urban health nurses, a sector health nurse, a pharmacist, a lab technician, and four multipurpose health workers.

The two-storey facility has three beds for males and infants and a six-bedded labour ward. It has additional buildings for labs, pharmacy and medicine storage. The centre offers treatment in general medicine, maternity health, newborn and child care, immunisation, family planning, communicable disease, non-communicable disease, accident and emergency.