After Ayushman Bharat, CAG to audit district hospitals' functioning
New Delhi: With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic engulfing almost every district of the country and exponential rise in confirmed cases of the Coronavirus 'exposing' the health preparedness of the state governments in particular and the Central government in general, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has decided to audit the performance as well as the preparedness of all districts' hospitals across the country.
"As district hospitals are the first point of care to deal with any pandemic like the situation, so the availability of a robust healthcare infrastructure at all district hospitals would not only help in containing the transmission of the disease, but it would also lessen the patient burden on other state-level public hospitals," a senior CAG official said.
"The objective behind auditing the core functioning of all district hospitals is to access their infrastructure efficiency. It's the responsibility of the national auditor to examine the utilisation of government funding to hospitals under the ambit of the state governments and Centre," the official said.
The auditing of district hospitals would be done in phases. Initially, the CAG would audit the performance of major states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat etc.
The auditing would also cover all healthcare facilities under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and ESIC Hospitals along with district wellness centres, the official said, adding that the target is to table the audit report in both the Houses of the Parliament during Budget Session.
However, the official maintained that auditing of districts hospitals is the extension of auditing of government's flagship health scheme Ayushman Bharat that promises to provide health cover to the poor and vulnerable population.
Notably, the CAG has already started the auditing of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) popularly known as Ayushman Bharat. The scheme, which is being claimed as world's largest health insurance scheme, has so far insured more than 10 crore poor households in the country.
"The audit of PM-JAY is proposed for 2020-2021 and it would be done in two parts. The audit would review data of the scheme and assess the implementation of the scheme and its outcomes," the CAG official said.
