Latest news with #AB-ArK
The Hindu
30-07-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Karnataka approves cleft care mentorship programme in State-run hospitals
To enhance the capacity of State-run hospitals to perform cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries, the government of Karnataka has approved a 'Cleft care mentorship programme'. Cleft lip and cleft palate are among the most common congenital anomalies affecting children in Karnataka. Surgical correction is essential for the physical, psychological, and social rehabilitation of affected individuals. However, there exists a gap in the availability of adequately trained maxillofacial surgeons in government hospitals, particularly in rural and underserved regions. At present, most of the cleft lip and cleft palate cases identified by the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) team or District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) are referred to empanelled private health facilities and NGOs for corrective surgery. Besides, only around 20 procedures have been conducted under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme over the last five years by one government medical college, four private medical colleges and two private hospitals. According to a government order issued on July 28, a gap analysis of government hospitals will be done by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), the nodal agency implementing the State's health schemes, to identify and provide the required infrastructure. equipment or HR for conducting cleft lip and cleft palate corrective surgeries. 'A pool of mentor surgeons should be prepared, based on qualifying criteria, as decided by a committee of technical experts. A probable list of maxillofacial surgeons working in the Health and Medical Education departments should be prepared. Children who require corrective surgery should be identified by RBSK teams and allocated to private hospitals, NGOs and government hospitals for surgery. The mentor surgeons should conduct the surgery at government hospitals, and also train other surgeons,' the GO states.
The Hindu
24-07-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka: Health Dept. considering relaxing referral system for certain procedures
Realising that the existing online referral system (ORS) has significantly complicated service delivery under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme, the State Health Department is examining a proposal to relax referral requirements for certain super-speciality procedures in the first phase. Apart from this, the department is also considering doing away with referrals for all simple secondary procedures in BBMP areas. This is because the existing government hospital beds in Bengaluru are not proportionate to the population and the referral system is causing severe hardship to needy patients. The proposal has been drafted following a detailed review of the existing online referral system through field visits and interactions with various stakeholders, including health service providers, beneficiaries at private medical colleges and empanelled private hospitals, as well as field staff from the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), the agency implementing the health scheme. The (AB-ArK) scheme covers 1,650 procedures — 294 simple secondary, 251 complex secondary, 934 tertiary care procedures and 171 emergency procedures. While the simple secondary procedures are completely handled at the government hospital level, for all other procedures, patients need to be referred by a government hospital to a higher facility (including empanelled private hospitals) if the former is not equipped to treat the illness. The scheme offers cashless treatment up to ₹5 lakh a year per family. Around 3.42 lakh patients have been referred online since June 2022, when the ORS was introduced in Karnataka, till June 2025. The referral policy, which has been in place since the inception of the scheme and was done manually prior to June 2022, has undergone multiple changes. Initially, the scheme offered free services at government institutions and package based services at the private hospital. However, it was later modified to include reimbursement packages for government hospitals for various procedures — 50% (secondary), 75% (tertiary), and 100% (cardiac) of the total package cost. Government institutions currently receive approximately ₹1,000 crore annually from the scheme in the form of claim reimbursements. Issues with referral system Harsh Gupta, principal secretary (Health and Family Welfare), told The Hindu that interactions with various stakeholders had revealed that the existing referral system has significantly complicated service delivery under the scheme, particularly for under-privileged sections of society. 'It adds another layer of complexity during emergencies. Patients are forced to navigate the process just to access services at empanelled institutions,' he said. 'The proposal is to relax the referral requirements for certain procedures that would anyways have been referred by a government hospital to a private empanelled facility. Procedures such as cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, urology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, and radiation oncology can be considered in the first phase. The applicability of the referral policy should depend on the accessibility, availability of services, and capacity of the healthcare system, as well as the patient load,' he said. In reputed medical college hospitals Besides, referral relaxation is also under consideration for neonatal codes related to babies born in non-empanelled hospitals. This is likely to be permitted exclusively for medical colleges with adequate infrastructure. 'On a pilot basis, we have relaxed referral requirements for a sub-set of complex secondary and tertiary procedures at Sathya Sai Memorial Hospital in Chikkaballapur district and BLDE Medical College Hospital in Vijayapura for the last six months. Now, we want to try it out in other reputed medical colleges, selected on some objective criteria such as those preferred by top rankers in NEET exam. We can list out top 50% of such colleges either on this criteria or on some other reasonable criteria. Thereafter, these selected private medical colleges can be exempted from the requirement of reference for tertiary procedures,' he explained.
New Indian Express
09-07-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Karnataka to act against hospital heads over poor NQAS
BENGALURU: Action will be taken against the medical and para-medical staff of government hospitals, Community Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and other health centres that come under the purview of the state health department, if they fail to meet the standards prescribed under the Union Government's National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS). The NQAS lays down a set of benchmarks to assess the quality of health care provided in government facilities. As per the order issued, the period between 2021 and 2030 is declared as the International Decade of Quality Service, and it reported that more than 50% of the ailments at the global level are due to poor or delayed treatment. Healthcare organisation that fails to achieve the expected target (NQAS certification) within three months will be disqualified from receiving team incentives under AB-ArK (Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka) and if they fail to achieve the expected levels in six months, it will be recorded in the annual performance reports of the representatives of the health centres and they will be linked to transfers. If no progress is made within nine months, the annual salary increment of all heads and medical/paramedical officers/staff working in such health institutions will be withheld. In case of no progress, the staff will be held accountable for poor quality care or treatment. The government granted a 'lead period' of three months to implement the order.
The Hindu
26-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Rise in C-section deliveries: Audit finds lack of confidence among specialists and sub-optimal capacity of labour room staff main contributing factors
An audit of caesarean section (C-section) deliveries in Karnataka by a team of experts from the Health Department has found lack of confidence among specialists to take trials in moderate cases for fear of newborn morbidity and mortality and sub-optimal capacity of the labour room doctors and nurses to be the main contributing factors for a rise in the surgical deliveries. In Karnataka, nearly one in every three deliveries is conducted through a C-section. Over the past 15 years, the C-section rate has doubled, indicating a significant shift in obstetric practices. While cesarean delivery is a lifesaving intervention when medically indicated, excessively high rates are associated with increased surgical risks, higher healthcare costs, and unnecessary strain on the health system. Review by committee To address this growing concern and to bring down C-section rates, the Health Department initiated a comprehensive review of C-section practices and an audit of such deliveries at the Tumkuru district hospital, where the rate is the highest in the State. The findings of the review and audit — conducted by a multi-stakeholder committee in January 2025 — were reviewed by the State Technical Committee on June 17, 2025. According to the committee's report, every second cesarean was a repeat C-section, without trial for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Besides, non-standardised induction practices leading to poor labour progression, high referrals from taluk hospitals to the district hospital and a demand by patients and their relatives have contributed to higher C-section rates. Harsh Gupta, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare, told The Hindu on Thursday that regular audits of C-section cases in randomly selected public facilities will henceforth be done by the State Technical Committee.. Corrective measures 'While this audit is for Tumkuru district hospital, the contributing factors are by and large the same in all districts. Based on the findings, we have initiated corrective measures and are conducting orientation programmes for obstetricians and gynaecologists on the safety and feasibility of VBAC. Of late, C-section has become a trend with many women themselves opting for it,' he said. 'While optimisation of quality antenatal care (ANC) checks is being taken up by introducing newer tools such as 'Gestosis scoring' used to assess the risk of preeclampsia and 'Pregnancy wheels' used to calculate gestational age and estimated delivery date, the consent form for the C-section has been revised by incorporating side effects of procedure,' Mr. Gupta said. To encourage vaginal births under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme, the department is considering a proposal for inclusion of incentives for normal delivery services at primary and secondary health care facilities. 'Apart from this, a proposal for withdrawal of team-based incentives for conducting C-sections to discourage unnecessary procedures is also under consideration,' he said. Recommendations To ensure evidence-based practices and reduce unnecessary cesarean sections, the committee has recommended development of State-specific guidelines for labour induction. 'Strengthening the taluk hospitals by rationalisation of posting specialists to provide assured comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services round-the-clock; refresher trainings on evidence-based labour management for obstetric care teams and regular online capacity building of skills required for labour room process have also been recommended,' he said. 'Capacity building of the nursing teams incorporating the principles of midwifery initiatives such as alternative birthing positions, exercise in the antenatal period, respectful maternity care involving counselling on the labour process has also been recommended. Besides, early identification of risk factors such as anemia, uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes, Urinary tract infections in the pregnant women and early intervention and community-level awareness campaigns on the risks of unnecessary C-sections and the benefits of vaginal birth are among the other recommendations,' Mr. Gupta added.
The Hindu
18-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Free treatment under Vay Vandana scheme for senior citizens aged 70 and above still elusive in Karnataka
Free treatment for senior citizens aged 70 and above, under the Ayushman Bharat Vay Vandana (ABVV) scheme, is still elusive in Karnataka. This is because the State's Finance Department has not agreed to the Centre's assurance that the modalities for release of grants for the scheme will be finalised soon. Responding to the State's letter seeking adequate support to implement the Vay Vandana scheme, which is an extended part of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), the Centre has requested Karnataka to start providing the services and that the payment modalities for additional cost will be worked out soon. Sharing ratio Expressing the State's inability to start the Vay Vandana scheme without any clarity on the fund release, Karnataka's Principal Secretary (Health) Harsh Gupta had written to the Union Health Secretary pointing out that the State is entitled to get ₹36.58 crore from the Centre for the scheme as per the 60:40 sharing ratio of Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme. 'Although the sharing ratio for the health scheme between the Centre and State should be 60:40, it is actually 25:75 as the State bears expenditure for around 1.12 crore families while the Centre is only funding the expenses of 69 lakh families as listed under the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data,' he said in the letter. Of the total AB-ArK beneficiaries, the State has around 15.12 lakh families with senior citizens as members. Of these, 9.22 lakh are SECC-identified families (tagged families), and the remaining are over and above the SECC-identified families (untagged families). 'The Centre will provide the State with additional support at the rate of a mere ₹75.7 per family per annum for tagged families and ₹1,052 per family per annum for the untagged families. However, additional support to the untagged families will be provided only after the 69 lakh families out of 1.12 crore total families are tagged,' the letter stated. NHA's letter In response to this, L.S. Changsan, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority (NHA) that is the implementing agency for AB PM-JAY, said the additional premium for existing beneficiary families determined at ₹75.7 per family per annum covers the additional top-up wallet of ₹5 lakh, which is utilised only after the primary wallet of the family is exhausted. For new beneficiary families, the annual premium of ₹1,052 per family aligns with the existing premium structure under AB PM-JAY, the NHA CEO's letter stated. 'Based on the consultations with States in July 2024 and the inputs received subsequently, the principles for tagging are being finalised. The identification of existing families and new families will be done based on these principles. However, the State may start providing the services to the Ayushman Vay Vandana card holders and tagging activity will be completed before fund release proposals for the ABVV are due,' the letter said. No definitive mechanism However, Karnataka's Finance Department has not agreed to this. 'In the absence of any definite mechanism to link the AB-ArK beneficiaries with the actual SECC data, as per the next best approximation worked out by the State Health Department, Karnataka will require a total of ₹68.98 crore per annum for the senior citizens scheme. As the Centre has to provide 60% of this amount to the State, Karnataka is entitled to get ₹36.58 crore from the Centre. We are now planning to place this issue before the State Cabinet for further discussion,' Mr. Harsh Gupta told The Hindu.
