On Thursday, 19 April 2018, Mr. J P Nadda (Union Health Minister), Ms. Anupriya Patel (Minister of State) in presence of Union Secretary Health, Union Secretary Water and Sanitation, National Health Mission, the Director General of Health Services presented citation and award to Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sevagram. Dr BS Garg, Secretary, Kasturba Health Society and Dr SP Kalantri, Director Professor of Medicine and the Medical Superintendent of Kasturba hospital represented their organization.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of India felicitated Kayakalp awardees 2017-18 at PGIMER, Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi. In 2015, the Ministry of Health, Government of India launched “Kayakalp”, an initiative for improving “Swachhta” at the public health facilities that included large teaching hospitals, district hospitals, and primary health centers. As per the Kayakalp guidelines, each hospital goes through an internal assessment, peer assessment and external assessment.
MGIMS received a citation and a certificate of appreciation for maintaining exemplary standards of cleanliness, high sanitation practices and infection control programs in its 984- bed hospital. Twenty-one institutes of national importance competed in this category. MGIMS, Sevagram was ranked fourth in the category. The first, second and the third prizes went to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Education and Research, Puducherry respectively.
Dr. SP Kalantri said, “The Ministry of Health used six parameters to judge the hospitals: hospital upkeep, cleanliness, sanitation and hygiene, bio medical waste management, Infection control and hygiene promotion.” We, at Sevagram, worked hard to ensure that our hospital is not only clean but also follows national standards of hygiene, sanitation and infection control. Our patients also use an electronic portal (Merahospital.com) to rate our hospital services and most of them rated us very high on functions that makes the hospital safe and efficient. For a hospital located in a village, to compete with 21 major national hospitals located in big cities was indeed a challenge, but we are happy that we were able to convincingly showcase what our hospital was upto and we were found worthy of the award.”