New Delhi (20.06.2022): ESI Corporation will extend its reach to the whole country. This was decided at the ESIC's 188th meeting under the chairmanship of Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Labour & Employment, Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
Presently, the ESI Scheme is being implemented in 443 districts and partially implemented in 153 districts, whereas 148 districts are not covered. The plan is to extend the scheme by the end of 2022 to the partially implemented and non-implemented districts across the country.
The medical care services will be provided through establishing new DCBOs, empaneling mIMP, and tie-up Hospitals of Ayushman Bharat PMJAY.
Further, ESIC has decided to set up 23 new 100 bedded hospitals across the country: Six hospitals in Maharashtra at Palghar, Satara, Pen, Jalgaon, Chakan, and Panvel; four hospitals in Haryana at Hisar, Sonepat, Ambala, and Rohtak; two hospitals each in Tamil Nadu (at Chengalpattu and Erode), Uttar Pradesh (Moradabad and Gorakhpur) and Karnataka (Tumkur and Udupi), one ESI hospital each in Andhra Pradesh (Nellore), Chhatisgarh (Bilaspur), Goa (Mulgaon Goa), Gujarat (Sanad), Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur), Odisha (Jharsuguda) and West Bengal (Kharagpur) will be set-up by ESIC. Besides these Hospitals, 5 doctors’ dispensaries at 62 places will also be opened. 48 dispensaries in Maharashtra, 12 dispensaries in Delhi, and 2 dispensaries in Haryana will be opened.
These hospitals and dispensaries will ensure the delivery of quality medical care service to the injured workers and their dependents in the close vicinity of their residence and will also enhance clientele satisfaction.
To provide quality medical care, ESIC is also augmenting its infrastructure by setting up new hospitals and upgrading the existing ones. As setting up new hospitals takes time, ESIC in its meeting decided to allow insured workers and their family members to avail cashless medical care services through Ayushman Bharat PMJAY empaneled hospitals in all the areas where ESI Scheme is partially implemented or to be implemented or where ESIC existing health care facilities are limited.
Beneficiaries of the ESI Scheme in 157 districts are already availing of cashless medical care through this tie-up arrangement. This decision will immensely help beneficiaries to avail of cashless medical services in the remaining districts.
The ESIC meeting also decided to establish Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Departments at three ESIC Medical College & Hospitals at Sanathnagar, Faridabad, and Chennai. It will be for the first time that such services will be made available at ESIC owned facility.
Two Cath Labs at ESIC Medical College & Hospital at Sanathnagar, Telangana, and Alwar, Rajasthan will be established. Recently, one Cath Lab has become functional at ESIC Medical College & Hospital at Faridabad, Haryana.
A decision was also taken to upgrade the existing 200 bedded ESIC Hospital, Pune to 500 bedded Hospital. The up-gradation of this Hospital will benefit 7 Lakh Workers and their family members in Pune.
ESIC in the meeting also decided to set up a new 100-bedded ESI Hospital at Ernakulam, Kerala. This Hospital will be equipped with all the modern health care facilities as per ESIC Norms. The multi-story Hospital will also house the Sub-Regional Office, Ernakulam.
Other Important Decisions taken in the Meeting included improving the medical care services of Insured Workers and their family members. The ESIC has also decided to take over the State Govt. run ESIS Hospital, Sonagiri, Bhopal to directly run it under its administrative control and also bridging the gap of nonavailability of Specialist/Super Specialists in State Govt. run ESIS Hospitals, ESIC will now engage required Specialist/Super Specialists for ESIS Hospitals. Overall the expenditure on engaging these Specialist/Super Specialists will be borne by ESIC. It will ensure the availability of specialist/super-specialist services in ESIS Hospitals.
Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Labour & Employment & Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Vice-Chairman, ESIC, Ms. Dola Sen, MP (Rajya Sabha), Ram Kripal Yadav, MP (Lok Sabha), Mukhmeet S. Bhatia, Director General, ESIC, R. K. Gupta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Members representing Employers’ Associations and Employees’ Unions and Principal Secretaries, Labour/Health of State Govts. attended the meeting.
