Awarded for being the third cleanest hospital in the State by Kerala State Pollution Control Board not so long ago, now heading towards National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Health Care Providers (NABH) accreditation, the Government Hospital for Women and Children, Kozhikode — better known as Kottapparamba hospital — has come a long way in providing quality health care for the common people in the district.
NABH auditors will be in Kozhikode on October 13 for the final performance audit, and if they are satisfied with the performance of the hospital, hopefully, Kottapparamba hospital will be the first government hospital in the district, and only fourth in the State, to have reached the milestone.
Ever since the State government had chosen the hospital in 2008 to be one among the 14 hospitals in the State to be prepared for NABH accreditation, a team led by Hospital Superintendent A.M. Muhammed has been running a hurdles race.
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For the 110-year-old hospital, reaching up to the stringent quality standards of NABH was an almost impossible task. But there was nothing impossible for the dedicated leadership of the Hospital Development Society (HDS) and an equally dedicated staff.
The NABH has set proper guidelines for the hospitals to prepare for its accreditation, which includes 102 standards and 636 objective elements to be fulfilled. The 10-chapter guidelines have five chapters devoted to matters related to patients while the rest is related to infrastructure.
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In the pre-assessment held in 2010, the hospital had 106 non-compliances, which was reduced to 56 in the final assessment held in 2011. The HDS worked hard to eliminate all the non-compliances and applied for a performance audit in February 2013, upon which the audit is to be held this Sunday.
The State has spent around Rs.3.5 crore to build the required infrastructure for the accreditation. However, Dr. Muhammed believes it is much more since money was channelled from various sources besides what was spent by the National Rural Health Mission. MLA A. Pradeep Kumar had allocated Rs.14 lakh while M.K. Raghavan, MP, had allocated around Rs.10 lakh. Additional funds came from the Public Works Department (PWD) and the yearly allowance to the HDS.
Large-scale development has taken place in the hospital over the past five years, despite its space constraints and the antiquity of the building.
The High Dependent Unit for newborn care has been upgraded into a ‘Special Newborn Care Unit’ with all advanced machinery at a cost of Rs.30 lakh. The operation theatre, recently renovated at a cost of Rs.50 lakh following the NABH standard, has centralised air-conditioning with Hepa-Filter that filters out the tiniest micro organism; 24-hour uninterrupted power supply; and all latest equipment.
The blood bank was expanded and a component-separation unit at the bank will be operational as soon as the licensing procedure is finished and the necessary staff is appointed.
Fire at the Kottapparamba hospital was a regular item in the local newspapers until recently, but not any more. The seven connections to various wings of the hospital will now be controlled from a unitised sub-station on the hospital premises. The wiring, which was done in aluminium, has been completely changed at a cost of Rs.45 lakh.
Besides, five generators — three of 25 KV power; one 100KV, and one of 40 KV — have been set up to eliminate any event of power failure. The 100 KV generator, set up at a cost of Rs.12 lakh, caters solely to the operation theatre.
The laboratory has been renovated by installing a semi auto analyser, fully automised analyzer, and electrolyte analyzer. The patients will have no need to leave the hospital premises for most of the laboratory services. The few services that are not available here have been outsourced to a recognised agency. A fair price medical shop that has been functioning in the hospital compound has been upgraded into a Karunya community hospital pharmacy that can take orders from the panchayats and provide medicines at a much subsidised rate. Also, the hospital premises have been beautified with lawns and art works.
Now, with the announcement system at all operation theatres operational, office fully computerised, the birth register digitalised, and CCTV cameras set up at important spots to prevent thefts, Kottapparamba hospital will be on a par with any state-of-the-art private hospitals in the district in terms of infrastructure, and much better in terms of affordable services.