Odisha govt launches `AMA Hospital’ scheme

A new scheme ‘’ AMA Hospital’’ has been launched in Odisha to maintain the quality of Medicare service and to provide the best Medicare to patients at par with the private hospitals, State Health Minister Niranjan Pujari said.

Replying to the admissibility of an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition Congress members Narasingha Mishra and Tara Prasad Bahinipati of Congress in the Odisha Assembly on Tuesday, the minister said under the AMA Hospital scheme 147 health institutions are targeted to be transformed in nine months.

He said importance is being given to infrastructure development, service delivery system and the need of the patients.

The state government, Pujari said, is committed to developing the health infrastructure and providing quality health care to the people of the state.

The health sector in the state has made rapid strides in comparison to what it was in early 2000 and launched a series of schemes providing free medicines, free diagnostic care, and free dialysis.

Under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) as many as 96.5 lakh families are getting health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakhs and Rs 10 lakhs to each female member in registered private hospitals.

Since January 2022 till today, the government has spent Rs 1443.73 crore towards medical claims under the scheme, the minister said.

The Minister said ten medical colleges and two PG institutes have been opened for the development of the Medicare system in the state and a target has been fixed to increase the number of medical seats from 2125 to 2500.

The OPSC, he said, has been asked to recruit 3481 doctors to fill up the vacancies and approval has been sought from the Finance department for the creation of 5,000 Junior Grade doctors keeping the requirement of doctors in 2023-24.

Participating in the debate, Opposition Congress and BJP members alleged that the health care system in Odisha has collapsed and the people are deprived of Medicare facilities.

C S Rajan (Cong) said around 40 per cent of the posts of doctors lying vacant in the state. He said there is a need of 7000 posts of health workers, 10,000 staff nurses and 6,000 pharmacists in various CHCs, and PHCs of the state. He alleged large-scale corruption in the BSKY.

Mukesh Mahaling (BJP) said though the government claimed that it is providing free dialysis but it is not available in all places.

He said Community Health Centres are run by Ayush doctors as there is no specialist in CHCs. The patients are referred to the private hospitals due to lack of ICUs in government hospitals. United News of India