Laqshya Scheme: Aiming for Maternal and Child Healthcare

Proper healthcare and treatment are one of the major concerns of India. Despite taking many initiatives by the government and private hospitals as well, proper care and treatment for the patients still lacks. One of the critical areas in health treatment is Maternal and newborn health, which requires major attention of India’s healthcare system. To address this issue, the Government of India launched the Laqshya Scheme in 2017. As stated, the major focus of this was maternal and newborn health by providing safe childbirth and quality care during delivery and reducing preventable deaths during childbirth.

About Laqshya Scheme

LaQshya stands for Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative, an initiative launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2017. The primary focus of this initiative was to enhance the quality of care in labour rooms and maternity operation theatres in public health facilities.

Why was Laqshya needed?

The launch of the National Health Mission has significantly increased the number of childbirths taking place in hospitals or healthcare facilities, having significantly increased from 38.7% to 78.9%, between 2015-16. Despite the increase in these numbers, there is still a decline in maternal and premature birth mortality. According to the government, there are around 46% of maternal deaths, over 40% of stillbirths, and 25% of under-five deaths, which occur on the day of delivery. These deaths can be prevented by proper healthcare. Hence, to address this gap, the Laqshya scheme was launched, focusing on quality care and ensuring safer outcomes for both mothers and newborns.

Key Objectives of this scheme

Under this scheme, the main objectives of the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs are:

Reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)	Minimise preventable deaths of mothers during childbirth
Reduce Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR)	Improve survival rates of newborns, especially during the first 24 hours.
Improve Quality of Care	It ensures standardised and evidence-based practices in labour rooms and maternity OTs.
Promote Respectful Maternity Care (RMC)	Focuses on providing dignified, safe, and patient-centred care to women
Strengthen Infrastructure and Facilities	Upgrade labour rooms with essential equipment, drugs, and hygiene standards
Enhance Skills of Healthcare Providers	Train doctors, nurses, and staff for better management of labour and complications
Ensure Effective Monitoring and Certification	Implementation of quality assessment and certification of facilities under the Laqshya scheme

Implementation of the Laqshya scheme

The initiative focuses on the systematic improvement of the quality of care in labour rooms and maternity operation theatres across public health facilities. The following strategy was followed to implement this scheme:

To ensure the improvement of a large section of people, health facilities are identified and prioritised. The places where the number of delivery cases is high, such as District Hospitals, Medical Colleges, and Community Health Centres (CHCs), were the main focus.
The next step was infrastructure upgradation and the implementation of standard protocols in these places. Labour rooms are equipped with essential medical equipment, drugs, and proper sanitation facilities, along with strict adherence to infection control practices.
Another step in this scheme is the capacity building of the healthcare workers. Doctors, nurses, and midwives undergo regular training to enhance their skills like managing labour, handling complications, and providing respectful maternity care.
The certification process (Laqshya certification process) is done. In these, the facilities are accessed based on some predefined quality standards. Hospitals that meet these standards are awarded certification, therefore encouraging them to maintain high levels of care.

After all these steps, continuous monitoring and evaluation are done. To ensure that quality is consistently maintained, periodic assessments, checklists, and feedback systems are implemented and regularly followed.
Besides these, quality improvement tools and techniques are regularly updated. These include audits, data tracking, and performance reviews, which are used to identify gaps and implement corrective measures. This ensures continuous improvement in maternal and newborn healthcare services.

Target Beneficiaries of the scheme

Pregnant Women	Women delivering in public healthcare facilities benefit from improved, safe, and respectful childbirth services.
Newborn Babies	Newborns receive immediate and quality care during and after delivery, especially in the critical first hours of life.
High Caseload Public Health Facilities	District Hospitals, Medical Colleges, and Community Health Centres, where a large number of deliveries take place. Quality improvements in these places have a wider impact.

Major benefits of Laqshya

Improved Quality of Care by ensuring best practice in labour rooms and OTs.
Reduction in Maternal and Neonatal Mortality, because of timely care, thus reducing preventable deaths.
Promotes dignified treatment, privacy, and patient-centred care for women.
Better Infection Control, through hygiene practices, thus reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections.
Promotes skilled Healthcare Services by training and capacity building.
Improved healthcare infrastructure by upgradation of facilities with essential equipment and improved labour room conditions.
Increased Patient Satisfaction because of better service, thus improved trust in public healthcare systems.

Major Challenges in Implementation

The implementation of the Laqshya scheme has faced a few challenges, which are:

There are still infrastructure gaps. Many public health facilities, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, still lack adequate labour room facilities, equipment, and sanitation.
There is a shortage of skilled labour. Due to an insufficient number of trained doctors, nurses, and midwives, there is a barrier to handling high patient loads effectively.
Overcrowding in government hospitals affects the quality of individualised care provided to each patient, which is a key challenge to the government.
It is also observed that regular training and upskilling of healthcare workers are not uniformly implemented across all facilities.
There is still a lack of a proper monitoring system in healthcare centres. Thus, ensuring continuous adherence to quality standards and protocols can be difficult due to weak monitoring systems.
There is a lack of resources, also. Thus, due to limited availability of funds and resources, infrastructure upgrades and quality improvements may be slowed down.

FAQS

1. What is 'Laqshya' in the labour room & maternity OT?

Laqshya is a quality improvement initiative in the labour room & maternity OT.

2. Why is maternity care important?

It is important to understand that maternity care is for both the mother and the babies. In India, the major reason for newborn deaths is improper care of the mother during pregnancy and after delivery.

3. What are the incentives under the Laqshya program?

The main focus is care quality in maternity rooms and OTs. Its implementation is ensured through continuous monitoring and assessments.

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