Government Launches National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) Project

The Union ministry of health and family welfare launched the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR), the first ever registry in the country of authentic, standardised and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments.

• It is country’s first ever healthcare establishment census to collect data of all public and private healthcare establishments.
• Also, the minister released the National Health Profile (NHP) 2018. It’s being prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI). Also, the E-book (digital version) of the annual document was also released. 
• The NHP covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, along with comprehensive information on health infrastructure and human resources in health.

Aims & Objectives of the NHRR Project:

• NHRR Project aims to strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop platform for citizen and provider-centric services by creating robust, standardized and secured IT-enabled repository of India’s healthcare resources. The census will be conducted under Collection of Statistics Act 2008.
• It will comprehensively collect information of both, private and public healthcare establishments including Indian Railways, ESIC, Defence and Petroleum healthcare establishments.
• It will be capturing data on over 1,400 variables of over 20 lakh healthcare establishments like hospitals, clinics, doctors, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and nursing homes.
• The exercise will involve approximately 4,000 trained professionals who will approach every healthcare establishment for information collection.

As per the press release, “The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) has actively engaged with key stakeholders including leading Associations, Allied Ministries, and several private healthcare service providers. This resource repository shall enable advanced research towards ongoing & forthcoming healthcare challenges arising from other determinants of health like – disease, environment etc”.

Key expected outcomes of the NHRR project:

• To provide comprehensive data on all health resources including private doctors, health facilities, chemists, and diagnostics labs.
• Establish a National Health Resource Repository for evidence based decision making – aligned with Digital India mission.
• Enhance the coordination between central and state government for optimization of health resources.
• Making ‘live’ and realistic state Project Implementation Plans (PIPs) and improving accessibility of data at all levels, including State Head of Departments, thus, decentralize the decision making at district and state level.