Punjab Health Minister urges Centre to release Ayushman funds accumulated to Rs 621 cr

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh. (Twitter/X@AAPbalbir)

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Tuesday appealed to the Central Government to release the Ayushman Funds, which has been accumulated to the tune of Rs 621 crore, reported news agency ANI.

Notably, the Punjab government in a release, said that the Central Government has stopped releasing grants to the Punjab state under the Ayushman Scheme since December 2022, reported ANI.

Pertinently, the Department of Health and Family Welfare Punjab has received first prize for its submission titled "Strengthening last mile delivery of drugs: A case study from Punjab" in the Global Health Supply Chain Summit held in Nairobi from November 14-16, reported ANI.

"If delegates from 40 countries want to come here to see our healthcare model to replicate in their countries, the Centre Government should also support us and should release the funds for the welfare of the people," said Dr Balbir Singh, while adding that the Punjab Government has even written a letter to the Central Government to consider the Aam Aadmi Clinics as a state scheme and won't use Ayushman funds for this scheme, reported ANI.

The Health Minister, however, said that there is no dearth of funds from Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to upgrade the healthcare facilities in the state. "Our CM Saab has always asked me not to worry about funds and just focus on the upgradation of healthcare infrastructure and ensure that nobody should face any kind of hassle in availing any treatment at government hospitals," he said, reported ANI.

He said that 100 more Aam Aadmi Clinics are ready to be thrown open to the public, while the Chief Minister has also given the go-ahead to set up 70 additional Aam Aadmi Clinics at underserved Kandi areas including Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Gurdaspur. To ensure the availability of medicines at Government Health Facilities, the Chief Minister has also given approval to purchase medicines, he said, while adding that nobody will have to purchase medicines from private pharmacies, reported ANI.

Dr Balbir Singh said that an amount of Rs 550 crores is being spent for the upgradation of around 40 secondary care health facilities including district, sub-divisional hospitals and Community Health Centres (CHCs). The upgraded buildings of all the hospitals will be equipped with ultra-modern medical facilities including Intensive Care Units (ICUs), Ventilators, X-rays, Ultrasound, etc and people no more have to visit private hospitals to avail world-class healthcare facilities, he added, reported ANI.

Pertinently, there are 664 Aam Aadmi Clinics-- 236 in urban areas and 428 in Rural areas-- functioning in the state and all of them are IT-enabled with end-to-end digitisation of registration, doctor consultation, investigations, and prescriptions. This results in a five-step patient journey and thus reduced turnout time from patient registration to prescription. Over 70 lakh patients have availed free treatment at these clinics so far, reported ANI.

(With inputs from ANI)