Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission
Context:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the Union government would provide Rs.3,000 crore to Tamil Nadu in the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission to address critical gaps in health infrastructure and health research, especially at the district level.
Details of the Scheme:
- The scheme aims at strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. Its objective is to fill gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas.
- Through this, critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than five lakh population through exclusive critical care hospital blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services.
- People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the public healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country, and integrated public health labs will be set up in all the districts.
- Integrated public health labs will also be set up in all districts, giving people access to “a full range of diagnostic services” through a network of laboratories across the country.
- An IT-enabled disease surveillance system will be established through a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
- All the public health labs will be connected through the Integrated Health Information Portal, which will be expanded to all states and UTs.
- Under the scheme, 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, and five new regional national centers for disease control will be set up.
Benefits and significance of the scheme:
- It will provide support for 17,788 rural health and wellness centers in 10 high-focus states. Further, 11,024 urban health and wellness centers will be established in all the States.
Source: THE HINDU.