All districts of the country will get dispensary-cum-branch offices (DCBOs) of the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to provide comprehensive services under the scheme at the district level.

This was decided at the 174th meeting of the ESIC held under the chairmanship of Labour & Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

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The DCBOs will provide the entire range of services under the scheme like primary medical care, referrals for secondary medical care, scrutiny of bills of secondary care referrals, besides distribution of drugs to modified employer utilisation dispensaries in the districts, payment of cash benefits and survey work for coverage in the district.

The ESIC will bear the establishment and operational cost of DCBOs, without sharing, in a manner similar to its expenditure on the ESIC hospitals. Labour Secretary Heera Lal Samariya, ESIC Director General Raj Kumar, and representatives of employees and employers were present.

In several other decisions on Tuesday, the ESIC decided on a nursing internship programme in ESIC hospitals, construction and upgradation of ESIC hospitals at Ranchi, Pune, Patna and  Bahadurgarh (Haryana), and facilities of super specialty treatment at ESIC Hospital, Varanasi.

The nursing internship programme in ESIC hospitals will be open to duly registered fresh graduate nurses who are looking to hone their skills in real work settings under the supervision of regular staff.  A monthly stipend (consolidated) of Rs 22,000 could be provided for duration of the internship.  The selection would be based on merit and the number of positions for internship could be around 20 per cent of the sanctioned strength of staff nurses for the ESIC  hospital.

In an area, where ESI does not have its medical establishment, or in a newly-added area, primary medical care is provided cash-less through a tie-up arrangement, with insurance medical practitioners (IMP). The ESIC shall utilise services of private practitioners (as IMPs) for delivery of primary care services (except for lab tests and medicines) to insured persons.

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation provides benefits like reasonable medical care and a range of cash benefits in times of need such as employment injury, sickness, and death of employees. The ESI Act applies to work premises where 10 or more persons are employed.

Employees drawing wages up to Rs 21,000 a month are entitled to health insurance cover and other benefits, under the ESI Act.The Act now applies to over 8.98 lakh factories and establishments across the country, benefiting about 3.19 crores family units of workers. As of now, the total beneficiary population of ESI scheme stands at over 12.40 crore. Ever since its inception in 1952, the ESI Corporation has, so far, set up 154 hospitals, 1489 dispensaries and 174 Indian system of medicine units.