Relevance
- GS 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States
Context
- Recently, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched MusQan initiative to ensure child friendly services in public health facilities.
Key points
- MusQan is a new quality improvement initiative for the paediatric age group (0-12 years), within the existing National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) framework.
- MusQan is designed to ensure provision of quality child-friendly facility based services from birth to children upto 12 years of age.
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Goal
- MusQan aims to ensure provision of quality child-friendly services in public health facilities to reduce preventable newborn and child morbidity and mortality.
Objectives
- To reduce preventable mortality and morbidity among children below 12 years of age.
- To enhance Quality of Care (QoC) as per National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS).
- To promote adherence to evidence-based practices and standard treatment guidelines & protocols.
- To provide child-friendly services to newborn and children in humane and supportive environment.
- To enhance satisfaction of mother and family, seeking healthcare for their child.
Strategies
- A framework has been developed to highlight four key strategies for rollout of ‘MusQan’ along with proposed actions for implementation.
- Strengthen clinical protocols and management processes
- Children & parent-attendant friendly ambience and infrastructure
- Strengthen referral and follow up service
- Provision of respectful and dignified care
Institutional Framework
National level
- The primary role of the Central Quality Supervisory Committee (CQSC) is to provide overall guidance, monitoring and mentoring of quality assurance efforts under various programmes/initiatives.
State level
- State Quality Assurance Committees (SQACs) are functional in all states/UTs
- The committee’s main responsibility is to oversee quality assurance activities in the state in accordance with National & State guidelines.
District level
- District Quality Assurance Units (DQAUs) are the functional arm of District Quality Assurance Committees in the States/UTs.
- The DQAU’s main responsibility is to oversee quality assurance activities across the district in accordance with National & State guidelines.
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Facility level
- The facility-level team comprises of Medical Superintendent or facility in-charge, Hospital Manager (wherever available), nursing in-charge and representative from other functional and related departments.
- The primary responsibility of the quality team is to oversee quality assurance activities across the facility.