NABH, HSSC sign MoU for recognition and skilling initiatives of health professionals

The collaboration will help achieve the goal of enhancing healthcare quality in the country

Dr Atul Kochhar, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) and Ashish Jain, CEO, of Healthcare Sector Skill Council (HSSC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at recognising HSSC certification for NABH accreditation; develop training programmes for skilling, reskilling and upskilling required for healthcare professionals. 

The collaboration will help achieve the goal of enhancing healthcare quality in the country. The MoU was signed in the august presence of Dr Selvakumar, Secretary, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka and Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman, Healthcare Sector Skill Council.

Dr Kochhar added, “Our partnership with HSSC will assist us in further strengthening the entire ecosystem of patient safety and healthcare delivery. Over the years, NABH standards have brought a paradigm shift in delivering healthcare services and it has helped in sensitising healthcare workers about their responsibilities. However, a country as diverse as India, growing at an unprecedented rate, requires many professionals who are skilled, continuously reskilling and upskilling. Today, our overall medical professional count per 1000 patients is much below WHO standards across doctors, patients and the paramedics category. This partnership will also help us in exploring solutions and addressing this gap.”

Ashish Jain, CEO HSSC, briefed that HSSC collaboration with NABH will facilitate better placement and apprenticeship opportunities for HSSC-certified healthcare professionals across the country in line with the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the objective of Skill India Mission under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. HSSC works closely with industry and academia to create a skills eco-system in the healthcare sector, which helps in the development of skilled and work-ready professionals as required by the industry.  

Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman, Healthcare Sector Skill Council in his message said, “Skills form the most important pillar of effective healthcare delivery system across the world. HSSC – NABH partnership sets the path for recognition of skills for enhancing healthcare quality and patient safety. I hope this collaboration between HSSC & NABH would lead to an inevitable and essential shift in terms of recognition of skills, practical-oriented training, and enhanced placement opportunities for certified healthcare professionals. This will have a major impact on better accessibility and early intervention in healthcare delivery in India.

Dr Alexandar Thomas, President, AHPI and Chairman, HSSC Karnataka instrumental in bringing HSSC and NABH together for this significant pact, in his message, conveyed that the push for safety and quality of healthcare that AHPI is driving with get a big boost with the upskilling from HSSC receiving recognition from NABH. The clinical outcomes are bound to improve and healthcare delivery better with a skilled health workforce trained under HSSC filling the missing gaps in caregiving.

 The initiative is envisaged to provide impetus to quality training, skilling, and creating placement opportunities for skilled healthcare workforce leading to enhanced quality of healthcare for patients.