Coming soon, five-star hospitals

Are you a sucker for star ratings when it comes to hotels? Do you never go to any establishment below five or three stars? Well, now you can extend your preference for quality to hospitals too. According to this report in The Indian Express, the Health Ministry has come up with guidelines that will give star ratings—from one to five—to public health institutions.
 

In the first phase, community health centres will be brought under this system. So, even if there are no star-rated hotels in your mohalla, you can still go to a star-rated health centre, as long as it has at least two doctors including a specialist, six nurses and midwives, one lab technician, separate toilets for men and women, a generator and an operation theatre.
 

While having the above facilities will give a centre a star rating, the journey from one star to five stars will depend on a range of qualitative factors like availability of drugs, client services and facilities. For bagging the highest rating, the centre will have to treat at least 10 measles patients and perform three insertions of intrauterine contraceptive devices and five caesarean sections every month.
 

The Centre has set aside five per cent of National Health Mission funds for states based on the ratings of their public health centres, which will be calculated using the data provided by the centres.Thanks to the Health Ministry, now you can know what to expect from a hospital before entrusting it with your health or that of your loved ones.