The Women and Children’s Hospital at Kottapparambu here has become the fourth government hospital in the State to secure accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) under the Quality Council of India (QCI).
This is the second hospital for women and children in India to win it, the first being the Women and Children’s Hospital at Thycaud in Thiruvananthapuram. The other government hospitals to secure the accreditation in the State are the General Hospital, Ernakulam, and the Cherthala taluk hospital.
In the category of other healthcare institutions, the Government Blood Bank at Aluva secured the accreditation in 2012.
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Thus, of the 14 hospitals with the accreditation in the State, four are in the public sector. Across India, a majority of the hospitals that have gained it are in the private sector.
The State government, with the help of the National Rural Health Mission, has been trying to improve the quality of care in the healthcare institutions in the public sector, by introducing standards of care and better infrastructure.
The Kottapparambu hospital has been provided better infrastructure: a modern operation theatre, centralised air-conditioning with Hepa (high-efficiency particulate absorption) filter and laminar flow, a special neonatal care unit, a post-operative care ward, a department of emergency medicine, a pharmacy, a laboratory, a scanning unit, centralised oxygen supply and air-conditioned outpatient rooms.
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The hospital, constructed in 1903 in memory of Queen Victoria, used to be the most famous institution for pregnancy care in Malabar.
The 295-bed hospital today conducts some 400 deliveries a month.