Forging Partnerships for Augmenting Family Planning Performance in UP

Uttar Pradesh is committed to contributing almost 26 percent of country's FP 2020 goal to achieve population stabilization. To fulfil this enormous task, Government of Uttar Pradesh clearly envisions a complementary role that the private health care providers can play alongside the public health sector, to exponentially expand access to quality FP services for the potential clients, thereby increasing use of family planning.

Hausala Sajheedari is an initiative of government of Uttar Pradesh to engage private sector health care providers in quality family planning service provisioning under government schemes. The whole process of accreditation of private health care facility, empanelling private sector qualified surgeons and reimbursement of private sector health facilities has been simplified through a dedicated online web portal called "Hausala Sajheedari". With empanelment, the private sector surgeons are also covered under the government indemnity scheme for sterilization services.

Hausala Sajheedari program, in a short span of little more than a year, has received an overwhelming response from the private sector health care institutions, leading to the accreditation of over 598 private hospitals and empanelment of 510 private surgeons.

The Hausala Sajheedari web portal data from September 2015 to August 2016 reveals over 30 thousand female sterilizations, 1508 NSVs, 21247 IUCDs and 9312 DMPA clients served by the accredited private facilities. Consequently, the net contribution of private sector in total number of sterilizations in the state has improved by over 8 percent as compared to the previous year. However, great variation can be seen across districts in number of family planning clients served by the accredited private hospitals, as depicted in the above map.

The private sector contribution could increase significantly if all accredited facilities started providing regular family planning services. As per the Hausala Sajheedari web portal data, out of 598 accredited private hospitals, only 24% are currently providing FP services. The situation could be improved if accreditation, empanelment and payment processes are further streamlined and delays effectively checked.

Taking into account all concerns and challenges, SIFPSA, in partnership with the Population Services International (PSI), organised an interface workshop on August 19, 2016 in Lucknow to hold brainstorming sessions on the teething troubles and bottlenecks identified in last one year of program implementation and arrive at prolific solutions. The objective of the workshop was to strengthen and revamp private sector engagement in Hausala Sajheedari. The workshop provided a platform to various stakeholders viz. government leadership, private health care providers, representatives of professional bodies like FOGSI and health partners, to come together and review progress, share experiences and key learnings, identify challenges and decide upon roadmaps for further revamping and streamlining the processes.

The workshop was chaired by Sri Alok Kumar, IAS, Executive Director (SIFPSA)/ Mission Director, NHM UP and co-chaired by Mr. Vikas Gothalwal, IAS Executive Director TSU. Dr. Jyoti Vajpayee, BMGF, Dr. Yashodhara Pradeep, representative of National FOGSI, Dr. V.S.Tomar, JD FW Department, Dr. B.S.Arora, Advisor NHM, SPMU, Dr. Aruna Narain, Senior Advisor-RMNCH+A, Mr. B.K. Jain, General Manager REMI/Business Development, Dr. Indu Tondon, President LOGS were the other special guests present. The workshop saw the presence of 91 participants- an indication of success of the initiative. The participants consisted of government officials from NHM, SIFPSA, CMOs & Additional CMOs, representatives from accredited private facilities, empanelled private surgeons, representatives of development partners etc.

The workshop started with a detailed presentation on 'the journey so far' and progress update of Hausala Sajheedari Program by Mr. Rajesh Bangia, DGM Projects. This was followed by a group exercise, a brainstorming session on five different topics relevant to capturing the current challenges of Hausala Sajheedari and generating ideas and possible solutions around those challenges. Five different groups were formed with mixed participation and each group was assigned a specific area to discuss and suggest solutions. The topics identified were:

• How to ensure private providers participation in FP services after their accreditation?
• How to ensure Client Verification process faster, ensuring privacy of the clients and speedy approvals?
• How to increase regular Client Flow for Sterilization to Accredited Private hospitals?
• How to ensure Optimal Utilization of District Quality Assurance Committee (DQAC) to strengthen quality FP services in Private sector under Hausala?
• How to engage Men for Family Planning under Private Sector?

Workshop also provided an opportunity to felicitate champions for their successful contributions to the Hausala Sajheedari program of GoUP. The 'reward and recognition' were extended to:

• Best performing Accredited Private Sector Hospitals of the health partners- MSI supported COT and static clinic, Janani supported Surya clinic, PSS supported Hospital/Clinic, HLFPPT supported Merry Gold Network hospital and PSI supported network hospitals.

• Top three Private Sector Empanelled Surgeons of Female Sterilization and NSV for providing maximum quality FP services.

Several useful recommendations emerged from the deliberations held during the workshop. In his address, MD NHM assured the health partners that workable solutions would be taken into account by the state. He also urged the private sector providers and stakeholders like FOGSI, Private Nursing Home Association etc. for greater contribution towards family planning in the state, in order to help the state achieve its FP 2020 target.