Parliament Question: Operationalisation of PHCs and CHCs as per IPHS norms

GOVERNMENTOFINDIA MINISTRYOFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE DEPARTMENTOFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE RAJYASABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO. 2835 TO BE ANSWERED ON17.03.2026 OPERATIONALISATION OFPHCS ANDCHCS AS PERIPHS NORMS

2835. PROF. MANOJ KUMAR JHA:

Will the Ministerof HEALTH AND FAMILYWELFAREbe pleasedtostate:

(a) the details of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) operating without the mandated minimum staffing, including doctors, as per the Indian PublicHealthStandards (IPHS),State-wise;

(b) the number of functional PHCs providing 24x7 services, uninterrupted electricity and a continuoussupply of essential medicine;

(c) the impact of non-functional primary care infrastructure on the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) burden for rural households forced to access private tertiary care; and

(d) timeline for upgrading all existing PHCs to strict IPHS compliance and reallocating capitalexpenditure toaddress these foundationalhealthcaredeficits? ANSWER THE MINISTER OFSTATE IN THE MINISTRYOFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE (SHRIPRATAPRAO JADHAV)

(a) to (d): The Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) have been developed by MoHFW for primary and secondary healthcare facilities which provides a set of uniform standards envisaged to improve the quality of health care delivery in the country. The IPHS was last updated in 2022 and the details under it regarding population coverage, infrastructure and staff availability at every level of healthcare facilities are available in public domain at the following Uniform Resource locator(URL):

http://nrhm.gov.in/nhm/nrhm/guidelines/indian-public-health-standards.htmlThe Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has been actively implementing the IPHS 2022 guidelines to provide uniform, high-quality health services across allstates.

The Ministry has launched an open-source toolkit and a dashboard under Indian Public Health Standards. The IPHS Dashboard is a cutting-edge digital platform designed to monitor public health facilities' compliance with the IPHS 2022 standards. These tools help states identifygapsandreceive targetedsupport toachieve the requiredstandards. The rollout of IPHS 2022 has been extensive and rapid. As on 6th March, 2026 - 100% of healthcare facilities have been assessed for IPHS. Among total assessed facilities, 63% facilities have scored more than50%.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare provides technical and financial support to the States/UTs to strengthen the public healthcare delivery system including support for IPHScompliance, based onthe proposals receivedinthe form of ProgrammeImplementation Plans (PIPs) under National Health Mission. Government of India provides approval for the proposal in the form of Record of Proceedings (RoPs) as per norms & available resources.

Details of the approvals given for the strengthening healthcare infrastructure in rural areas of the country including IPHS compliance are available at website of Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare at the Uniform Resources Locator(URL) asunder:

https://nhm.gov.in/index1.php?lang=1&level=1&sublinkid=1377&lid=744 Details of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) including PHCs functioning 24x7 and Community Health Centres (CHCs) and healthcare staff including doctor in public health facilitiescanbe assessedat the following linkof HDI 2022-23:

(a)

https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Health%20Dynamics%20of%20India%20%28Infrastr ucture%20%26%20Human%20Resources%29%202022-23_RE%20%281%29.pdf As per National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates, the share of Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) in Total Health Expenditure has declined from 62.6% in 2014-15 to

39.4% in 2021-22. The Government is making efforts to reduce the OOPE as a percentage of Total Health Expenditure (THE).There hasbeen a significant increase inGovernment Health Expenditure (GHE) as percentage of THE, which has increased from 29.0% in 2014-15 to

48.0% in 2021-22. Concurrent to this increase in GHE, the share of OOPE in THE has declined from 62.6% to 39.4% during the same period. This declining share of OOPE is indicativeof increasing accesstohealthservices.

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