PM launches Ayushman Bharat health infra mission

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission and Release of Operational Guidelines in Varanasi. The PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will be one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. It will be in addition to the National Health Mission, according to the PMO.

Prime Minister Modi slammed previous governments at the Centre and said that the health infrastructure of the nation was not given attention for a long period of time after Independence. PM Modi said, “For a long time after Independence, not much attention was paid to health and healthcare facilities. People who governed the nation for years never bothered to invest in healthcare infrastructure.” “They kept the healthcare system devoid of facilities instead of facilitating its development,” said the Prime Minister. “Villages either did not have hospitals or no doctors in hospitals. Block hospitals did not have testing facilities; if test reports came in, there was doubt on its results.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi further said, “In its fight against coronavirus pandemic, the nation has achieved a major milestone of administering 100 crore vaccine doses. With the blessings of Baba Vishwanath, Maa Ganga and the trust of the people of Kashi, the campaign of ‘Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine’ is going ahead successfully.” “The present Central government and the state government understand the pain of the poor, downtrodden, oppressed and backward class people. We are working day and night to improve health facilities in the country,” he added.

With more and more medical colleges coming up, India will have more doctors in the next 10-12 years than it has had in the past over 70 years since Independence, said Prime Minister Modi.

The objective of PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission is to fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas. It will provide support for 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 High Focus States. Further, 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres will be established in all the States.

Critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than 5 lakh population, through Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services, it said.

People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the Public Healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country. Integrated Public Health Labs will be set up in all the districts. Under the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, a National Institution for One Health, four New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South-East Asia Region, nine Biosafety Level III laboratories, five New Regional National Centre for Disease Control will be set up. PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission targets to build an IT enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels, in Metropolitan areas. Integrated Health Information Portal will be expanded to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs.

PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission also aims at the operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, for effectively detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks. It will also work towards building up a trained frontline health workforce to respond to any public health emergency.