Telangana government has decided to extend cash incentives to doctors and medical staff who conduct normal deliveries in State-run hospitals above the benchmark.
The decision was taken in view of the high number of C-section deliveries and the need for reducing them. It has been decided to pay team-based incentive of ₹3,000 per delivery to the staff for normal deliveries over and above the benchmark. In the orders issued on Thursday, Health Secretary S.A.M. Rizvi said that benchmark deliveries for teaching hospitals had been fixed at 350 a month per facility and 250 a month for district hospitals including MCH.
The benchmark deliveries would be 150 in area hospitals, 50 in community health centres, 10 in 24X7 primary health centre and five in primary health centres/urban health centres.
An incentive of ₹1,000 per delivery would be paid to the gynaecologist/medical officer, ₹1,000 to midwife/staff nurse/ANM and ₹500 to ayah/sanitation worker. For field staff, the incentive per delivery would be ₹250 for ANMs (sub centre) and ₹250 for ASHA workers.
The order said the percentage of normal deliveries performed during the year 2021-22 by a given institution would be taken as benchmark percentage for that institution for the year 2022-23. The optimum level of normal deliveries as per World Health Organisation norms was about 85% and therefore, if a public health facility exceeds the 85% threshold of normal deliveries in 2021-22, then 85% of normal deliveries would be taken as benchmark for the year 2022-23.
Performance in each month above the benchmark would be incentivised for that hospital and applicable amount would be released to the institution on a monthly basis. Institution-based incentive shall be paid on pro rata basis to the staff in the listed categories, the order said.
