The Prime Minister lamented that in post-independent India, health infrastructure did not get the required attention for a very long time and citizens had to run from pillar to post for proper treatment, leading to worsening of the condition and financial strain
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission from Varanasi.
He also inaugurated various development projects worth around Rs 5200 crore for Varanasi. Governor and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Union Ministers, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, State Ministers and people’s representatives were among those present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said the country has achieved a major milestone of 100 crore vaccine doses in its fight against the corona epidemic.
The Prime Minister lamented that in post-independent India, health infrastructure did not get the required attention for a very long time and citizens had to run from pillar to post for proper treatment, leading to worsening of the condition and financial strain. This led to a persistent worry about medical treatment in the hearts of the middle class and poor people. Those whose governments remained in the country for a long time, instead of the all-around development of the country’s healthcare system, kept it deprived of facilities.
The Prime Minister said that PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission aims to tackle this deficiency. The aim is to strengthen the critical healthcare network from village to block to the district to the regional and national level in the next 4-5 years.
Describing the initiative taken by the government under the new Mission, the Prime Minister said that there are 3 major aspects of the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission to address the different gaps in the health sector of the country.
The first is related to the creation of elaborate facilities for diagnostics and treatment. Under this, Health and Wellness Centers are being opened in villages and cities, where there will be facilities for early detection of diseases. Facilities like free medical consultation, free tests, free medicine will be available in these centres. For serious illness, 35 thousand new critical care-related beds are being added in 600 districts and referral facilities will be given in 125 districts.
The second aspect of the scheme, the Prime Minister said, is related to the testing network for the diagnosis of diseases. Under this mission, the necessary infrastructure will be developed for the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. 730 districts of the country will get Integrated Public Health labs and 3 thousand blocks will get Block Public Health Units. Apart from that, 5 Regional National Centers for Disease Control, 20 Metropolitan units, and 15 BSL labs will further strengthen this network, said the Prime Minister.
The Third aspect, according to the Prime Minister, is the expansion of existing research institutions that study pandemics. Existing 80 Viral Diagnostic and research labs will be strengthened, 15 Biosafety level 15 labs will be operationalized, 4 new National institutes of Virology and a National Institute for One Health are being established. WHO regional research platform for South Asia will also strengthen this network.
“This means, through PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission an entire ecosystem for services from treatment to critical research will be created in every corner of the country”, said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister highlighted the employment potential of these measures and said that PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, along with health, is also a medium of aatmnirbharta.
He also added, “It is a part of the effort to achieve holistic health care. Which means healthcare that is affordable and accessible to all. Holistic healthcare focuses on wellness along with health.”
Sharing his views on the launch, Dr Shuchin Bajaj, Founder & Director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals said “Ayushman Bharat health infrastructure mission is a dramatic change in the way we have looked at health care all through these years. We have just been looking at providing sick care by setting up hospitals etc. And adding more beds. But now this is a complete infrastructure and ecosystem development that has been brought in and it is a laudable step by the government. The 64,000 crores scheme entails opening around 17,700 Rural Health Care wellness centers and more than 11,000 Urban Health Care wellness centers. In addition to laying a lot of focus on primary preventive and diagnostic care, in the form of adding more BSL three laboratories, opening a regional viral research institute, more emphasis on preventive therapies and primary prevention of diseases and research facilities to diagnose and prevent pandemics and epidemics of the future. So, I think it’s a wonderful and laudable step to develop the entire ecosystem, of course it also entails adding more critical care infrastructure, which is sorely lacking in our districts. So more than 600 districts will benefit from that, in addition to AIIMS, of course, adding more than 150 more critical care beds. And old districts of the Uttar Pradesh will have critical care facilities, which are sorely lacking and people have to travel hundreds of kilometres to access the nearest ICU that leads to complete disregard of the golden hour and people losing their lives on the way so full, I think complete infrastructure related to development of the public healthcare system of India, which I think is a great step towards achieving a healthier economy, as many times said that seek economy cannot be a fast growing economy. If you’re dreaming of a $5 trillion economy we have to ensure that people are healthy people do not get diseased and if they do, they don’t spend out of pocket and don’t slip below the poverty line in that way, more than six crore people in India slip below the poverty line every year just due to health care costs. And this scheme I think will be a big step towards preventing that happening in the future.”
Kamal Narayan Omer, CEO, Integrated Health and Well-Being Council (IHW Council) said “The announcement of Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission marks the implementation of a plan announced during the Union Budget this year. The plan indicates the government’s commitment towards a robust and self-reliant healthcare system for India which has been a long-standing need of the country. With the recent news of increasing COVID-19 cases in neighbouring China as well as Russia and the UK and Zika infection in Kanpur after initial reports from western parts of the country, it has become urgent to set up a wide-ranging tech-enabled disease surveillance system. The Mission has the potential to be the gamechanger in the Indian healthcare infrastructure development, which can further augment the health services delivery modalities for good.”
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