Modi to launch expansion of health coverage to all senior citizens aged 70

Representational image. (Photo: iStock)


On the occasion of Dhanvantari Jayanti and the 9th Ayurveda Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of multiple projects related to the health sector worth around Rs 12,850 crore on Tuesday at the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi.

As a major addition to the flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), he will launch expansion of health coverage to all senior citizens aged 70 years and above. This will help provide health coverage to all senior citizens regardless of their income.

Officials said it has been the constant endeavour of the PM to provide quality healthcare services all across the country.

The PM will inaugurate Phase II of India’s First All India Institute of Ayurveda. It includes a Panchakarma hospital, an Ayurvedic pharmacy for drug manufacturing, a sports medicine unit, a central library, an IT and start-ups incubation centre and a 500-seat auditorium among others. He will also inaugurate three medical colleges at Mandsaur, Neemuch and Seoni in Madhya Pradesh.

Further, he will inaugurate facility and service extensions at various AIIMS in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Kalyani in West Bengal, Patna in Bihar, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam and in New Delhi, which will also include a Jan Aushadhi Kendra. The PM will also inaugurate a Super Speciality Block in Government Medical College at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and a Critical Care Block in Bargarh, Odisha.

He will also lay the foundation stone of five Nursing Colleges in Shivpuri, Ratlam, Khandwa, Rajgarh and Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh; 21 Critical Care Blocks at Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan under Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), and several facilities and service extensions at AIIMS in New Delhi and in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh.

The PM will also inaugurate an ESIC Hospital at Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and lay the foundation stone for ESIC hospitals at Faridabad in Haryana, Bommasandra and Narasapur in Karnataka, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, and Atchutapuram in Andhra Pradesh. These projects will bring healthcare benefits to around 55 lakh ESI beneficiaries.

The PM has been a strong proponent of expanding the usage of technology to enhance service delivery across sectors. In an innovative usage of drone technology to enhance service delivery to make healthcare more accessible, he will launch drone services at 11 Tertiary Healthcare Institutions.

These are AIIMS Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, AIIMS Bibinagar in Telangana, AIIMS Guwahati in Assam, AIIMS Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, AIIMS Jodhpur in Rajasthan, AIIMS Patna in Bihar, AIIMS Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, AIIMS Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, AIIMS Raipur in Chhattisgarh, AIIMS Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh and RIMS Imphal in Manipur. He will also launch Helicopter Emergency Medical Services from AIIMS Rishikesh, which will help deliver speedy medical care.

He will launch the U-WIN portal. It will benefit pregnant women and infants by fully digitising the vaccination process. It will ensure timely administration of life-saving vaccines to pregnant women and children (from birth to 16 years) against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases.

Further, the PM will also launch a portal for allied and healthcare professionals and institutes. It will act as a centralised database of existing healthcare professionals and institutes.

The PM will also launch several initiatives to strengthen the R&D and testing infrastructure to improve the healthcare ecosystem in the country. He will inaugurate a Central Drugs Testing Laboratory in Gothapatna in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

He will lay the foundation stone of two Central Research Institutes in Yoga and Naturopathy at Khordha in Odisha, Raipur in Chhattisgarh. He will also lay the foundation stone of four Centres of Excellence at NIPER Ahmedabad in Gujarat for medical devices, NIPER Hyderabad in Telangana for bulk drugs, NIPER Guwahati in Assam for phytopharmaceuticals, and NIPER Mohali in Punjab for anti-bacterial anti-viral drug discovery and development.

The PM will launch four Ayush Centres of Excellence, namely Centre of Excellence for diabetes and metabolic disorders at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Centre of Excellence in sustainable Ayush for advanced technological solutions, start-up support and net zero sustainable solutions for Rasaushadhies at IIT Delhi; Centre of Excellence for fundamental and translational research in Ayurveda at Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow; and Centre of Excellence on Ayurveda and Systems Medicine at JNU, New Delhi.

In a major boost to Make in India initiative in the healthcare sector, the PM will inaugurate five projects under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for medical devices and bulk drugs at Vapi in Gujarat, Hyderabad in Telangana, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh. These units will manufacture high-end medical devices, such as body implants and critical care equipment, along with important bulk drugs.

The PM will also launch a nationwide campaign, “Desh Ka Prakriti Parikshan Abhiyan,” that aims to raise health awareness among the citizens. He will also launch the State specific Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health for each state and UT which will lay out adaptation strategies towards developing climate resilient healthcare services.