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Health infra mission will prepare country to fight future pandemics, says PM
VARANASI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the ₹64,000-crore Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will also prepare the country to fight future pandemics
VARANASI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the ₹64,000-crore Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will also prepare the country to fight future pandemics.
“Ayushman Bharat Mission has been launched to give strength to the health infrastructure of the country, including UP, so that there are high level preparations to prevent and deal with future pandemics. This also aims at bringing self-confidence and self-reliance in our healthcare system,” said Modi while launching the national medical infrastructure mission during his visit to Varanasi.
The PM also inaugurated various development projects worth more than ₹5,200 crore for his constituency, while addressing a public rally in Varanasi.
“No other place could be better than Kashi for launching the mission as it is the abode of Lord Shiva and Shakti,” he said.
“After independence, for a long period, health facilities and infrastructure were not given much attention. The previous governments deprived the country’s healthcare system of facilities,“ alleged Modi.
He said villages lacked hospitals while hospitals at block level lacked testing facilities and district hospitals didn’t have facilities for treatment of serious diseases.
“In big hospitals, there were long queues and patients had to wait for long. There were shortcomings in the healthcare system,” he added.
The PM said there were three major aspects of the Ayushman Bharat Mission to address gaps in the health sector. The first was related to the creation of elaborate facilities for diagnostics and treatment. Under this, health and wellness centres were being opened in villages and cities to provide facilities for early detection of diseases.
The second aspect of the scheme was related to the testing network for diagnosis of diseases. A total of 730 districts of the country would get integrated public health labs and 3,000 blocks would get block public health units. Apart from that, five regional national centres for disease control, 20 metropolitan units, and 15 BSL labs will further strengthen this network, said Modi.
The third aspect, according to the PM, was the expansion of existing research institutions that study pandemics.
The existing 80 viral diagnostic and research labs will be strengthened, 15 bio-safety level labs will be operationalised, four new national institutes of virology and a national institute for health were being established.
“This means, through PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, an entire ecosystem for services – from treatment to critical research will be created in every corner of the country,” he said.
“Our government understands the pain of the exploited, deprived and backward lot. Earlier, public money used to go into scams, but today it is being used for big projects, said the PM.
He added: “The speed with which new medical colleges are being opened in UP will have great impact on the number of medical seats and doctors. Due to more seats, children of poor parents will also be able to dream of becoming doctors and fulfill it.”
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