NEW DELHI: Kerala has yet again emerged as the best state in terms of overall health performance among larger states while Uttar Pradesh is the worst, according to the fourth Health Index released by Niti Aayog.
Here are they key findings of the report:
* This is for the fourth consecutive round that Kerala emerged as the best performer in terms of overall performance
* Tamil Nadu and Telangana have emerged as the second and third best performers on health parameters among larger states.
While UP is the worst performer overall, it has made the maximum incremental gains over the period of one year followed by Assam and Telangana.
* Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were the second and third worst performers on health parameters.
* Rajasthan was the weakest performer both in terms of overall performance and incremental performance.
* Telangana performed well both in terms overall performance as well as incremental performance and secured the third position in both instances.
Among the smaller states, Mizoram emerged as the best performer in overall performance as well as incremental performance.
* Mizoram and Tripura also showed improvements in incremental performance.
Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur are the worst performing states in terms of both overall and incremental performance.
* Among UTs, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir ranked among the bottom UTs in terms of overall performance but emerged as the leading performer in terms of incremental performance.
The health index by the government think-tank is a weighted composite score incorporating 24 indicators covering key aspects of health performance.
The report said that health index comprises select indicators in three domains — health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs and processes.
The report has been prepared in collaboration with the ministry of health and family welfare with technical assistance from the World Bank.
Among Union territories (UTs), Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir ranked at the bottom in terms of overall performance but emerged as the leading performer in terms of incremental performance. Pollbound UP showed a marked improvement in its performance in most indicators. Among the larger states, UP registered the highest incremental change of 5.5 points from the base year (2018-19) to reference year (2019-20).
Among 19 larger states, four improve their Niti rankings
Avast majority of the states and UTs have recorded a shift in their overall performance rankings from base year (2018-19) to reference year (2019-20). Among the 19 larger states, four improved their rankings while states deteriorated and 10 retained their base year (2018-19) ranks.
Three out of the eight smaller states improved their rankings, four deteriorated while one retained its base year (2018-19) rank. Compared to the base year (2018-19), four UTs improved their ranks while that of three UTs deteriorated in the reference year (2019-20). Assam made the maximum improvement by moving up three ranks (from 15 to 12) while Andaman & Nicobar registered the maximum drop (down from 4 to 7), the report showed.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of the health sector and the need for doubling up health systems strengthening efforts. Though this round of the health index (Round IV) 2019-20 does not capture the impact of Covid-19 on health outcomes or any of the other indicators, as the index performance relates to the base year (2018-19) and reference year (2019-20), largely the pre-Covid period, it will provide good guidance on areas of improvement to states and UTs,” Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul said in his comment on the report. In 2017, the government think tank Niti Aayog in collaboration with the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) and the World Bank initiated an annual health index for tracking overall performance and incremental performance across all states and UTs.
The objective of the annual health index is to track progress on health outcomes and health systems performance, develop healthy competition and encourage cross learning among states and Union territories.
You must be logged in to post a comment.