India has reached a major milestone in strengthening the quality of its public healthcare system, with 50,373 public health facilities certified under the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) as of December 31, 2025.
The NQAS framework was established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to standardise and improve the quality, safety, and patient-centredness of care across public health institutions nationwide.
The achievement marks the first time the country has crossed the 50,000 mark in NQAS certifications, reflecting sustained efforts to embed quality assurance across all States and Union Territories. The expansion of certified facilities is aimed at improving equitable access to reliable healthcare services, particularly for underserved and vulnerable populations.
The NQAS programme was launched in 2015 with certification granted to just 10 healthcare facilities, initially limited to District Hospitals. Over the years, the scope of the framework has been progressively expanded to include Sub-District Hospitals, Community Health Centres, Ayushman Arogya Mandir–Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs), and Sub-Health Centres (SHCs). This phased expansion has enabled quality benchmarking across all levels of public healthcare delivery.
A significant acceleration in certifications has been driven by the introduction of virtual assessments, allowing faster and wider evaluations. The number of NQAS-certified facilities increased from 6,506 in December 2023 to 22,786 in December 2024, before more than doubling to 50,373 by December 2025.
Of the total, 48,663 are Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (including SHCs, PHCs, and UPHCs), while 1,710 are secondary care facilities, such as CHCs, Sub-District Hospitals, and District Hospitals.
The scale-up aligns with India’s broader objective of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under the National Health Policy 2017, which prioritises access to affordable, high-quality healthcare without financial hardship. The rapid growth in certifications has been supported by multiple strategies, including continuous capacity building, digital tools, expansion of trained assessors, and structured quality improvement mechanisms.
The government has indicated that quality certification will remain a central pillar of public health reform. An interim target has been set to achieve NQAS certification for at least 50% of all public healthcare facilities by March 2026, reinforcing efforts to make quality, safety, and patient-centred care a permanent feature of healthcare delivery across India.
