In a first-of-its kind endeavour, India is conducting a census of healthcare establishments in the country. Counting health facilities, including public and private hospitals, diagnostic labs, clinics, pharmacies and nursing homes will be crucial to the implementation of Ayushman Bharat — the cashless insurance scheme to be rolled out for ten crore families later this year.

Under the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, estimated data of over 20 lakh facilities will be enumerated on over 1400 variables in the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR).

“It will be the ultimate platform for comprehensive information, of both private and public healthcare establishments including Railways, ESIC, Defence and petroleum,” said official documents released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

MoHFW officials said enumerators will physically visit every street of the ward and the village to identify and record the details of every healthcare establishment through line listing.

Based on this line listing, they will then physically approach each healthcare establishment and collect data on various resources using structured questionnaires on tablets. Healthcare organisations can also register through an online portal.

ISRO pitches in

ISRO will enable data collection on a tablet application which will capture GPS data on location, photo, name and category of each establishment.

“NHRR will be working with Ayushman Bharat and Central TB division on an integrated plan for the larger benefit ensuing hospital empanelment and private sector engagement,” the official said.

“It is a daunting task to collect data on such a huge scale. It is ambitious to physically verify each and every healthcare establishment. The Prime Minister's Office wants the census to be completed by September. But it might extend till December. We are looking at geospatial mapping of health infrastructure through a Gujarat-based firm, and are expecting some data to be handy along with the Ayushman Bharat launch,” another official said.