The Directorate of Health Services recently released the performance rankings for District Health Officers (DHOs) and Civil Surgeons (CSs) across Maharashtra from April to September 2024. The ranking has been done based on the performance of the hospitals and the effective implementation of national health programmes.
The report released by the Directorate of Health Services revealed differences in healthcare performance among districts, with Pune emerging as one of the lowest-ranked districts. According to the rankings, Akola tops the list among DHOs with a score of 58.67, while Washim led the Civil Surgeon rankings with 54.33 points. However, districts like Sangli (56.91), Washim (56.66), and Gadchiroli (54.48) also performed well. Pune and Sindhudurg recorded low scores. Pune’s DHO scored 41.80, placing the city at the bottom of the list, while its Civil Surgeon ranked even worse, securing only 33.22 points. Other poorly performing districts included Nanded, Jalna and Hingoli, which, like Pune, failed to meet several critical benchmarks.
Health activist Sharad Shetty said, “The patient services at the Aundh District Hospital (ADH) are mainly focused on fulfilling statistical requirements. Those responsible for healthcare systems seem uninterested in ensuring better facilities. Also, the hospital administration appears to have no clear understanding of the grants and programmes provided under schemes like the National Health Mission (NHM), resulting in inefficiency and complacency within the NHM department. To enhance the hospital’s management and services, it is recommended to appoint a retired medical officer from the armed forces as an administrator.”
The letter read, “Districts performing poorly are advised to focus on large-scale implementation and improvement of programmes related to maternal health, child health, family planning, adolescent health, and various other national health programmes like National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). District authorities are urged to review underperforming programmes and take corrective measures to enhance implementation.”
Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Dr Nagnath Yempalle, district civil surgeon and head of ADH, said, "The ranking criteria is wrong. We have performed more surgeries than the other hospitals. We have more numbers of patients coming for the treatment. In Pune, we are more into in-house advanced healthcare services and not door-to-door services."
