Ayushman Bharat Fortnight kicked off in Meghalaya

Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Meghalaya, Shri A. L Hek today kicked off the Ayushman Bharat Fortnight at Moreau Institute for Integral Training (MIIT), Cleve Colony, Shillong in the presence of Meghalaya State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Chairperson Smti Meena Kharkongor as Guest of Honour, Shri P. Bakshi Secretary Health & Family Welfare and MD NHM & CEO MHIS, Government of Meghalaya, East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner and Directors of Health Services Smti. M. War Nongbri, and Dr. N. K Bhattacharjee, President, of Heart Care Society, Assam.

The objective of this fortnight is to increase awareness about Ayushman Bharat and reach out to the beneficiaries with information about availing the services. The thematic approach will essentially cover both the pillars of Ayushman Bharat schemes i.e. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yaoga (PM-JAY) as well as Pradhan Mantri Health & Wellness Centers. In February 2018, the Government of India announced that 1, 50,000 Health & Wellness Centres would be created by transforming existing Sub Health Centres and Primary Health Centres to deliver Comprehensive Primary Health Care and declared this as one of the two components of Ayushman Bharat

In his speech, the Minister said that the flagship health insurance programme of the Government of India will ensure that every citizen benefit from the scheme. He said that health is a core issue of concern for the government, and the department has left no stone unturned to implement this scheme in letter and spirit. He called upon the health workers to take this programme forward and guarantee ‘Health for All’ to each and every citizen.

Smti Kharkongor, in her speech, touched on the very important aspect of health care of the under privileged children in rural areas where she said that these children are greatly affected due to lack of information about the various health schemes of both the Central and State Government.  She expressed gratitude to the Government for taking the initiatives to increase equity in the health services delivery in the area of child health which include, targeting of rural population especially the disadvantaged groups as the primary beneficiary with special focus on women and children. She expressed hope that the dynamic team of health workers will ensure that this programme touch the last mile.

Shri Bakshi in his speech said Ayushman Bharat is the largest government funded programme of the Government and the Government of India has set a target of setting up 1.5 lakh Health & Wellness Centres by 2022. He said that this insurance scheme will reduce out of pocket expenditure and catastrophic health expenditure of the patients. Shri Bakshi also informed that till date there are 42 Health and Wellness Centres in the State and hoped that by the year 2022, Meghalaya will achieve the targeted 207 number of Centres.

Smti War Nongbri, in her speech said that Ayushman Bharat gives us an opportunity to contribute more to health and wellness of the citizens and PMJAY-MHIS assures the citizens to know more about the health schemes. She said that East Khasi Hills District has only 51% enrolment in MHIS Stage IV and called for a strong mechanism to ensure that each and every citizen is not denied of the benefit of this health scheme.

Ayushman Bharat or “Healthy India”, a national initiative was launched in 2018 as recommended by the National Health Policy 2017, to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage. It comprises of two inter-related components–Establishment of Health and Wellness Centres (HWC) - that cover prevention promotion and ambulatory care at primary level, and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) - for cashless treatment at secondary and tertiary level. The objective of this initiative is to increase and ensure the awareness to availing the services from Health and Wellness Centres, PM-JAY and MHIS. It will also be emphasizing during the fortnight, the enrolment of all families under MHIS to enable them to get benefits from the scheme.