Taking a significant leap forward towards providing best and affordable healthcare services, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday virtually dedicated Rs 125 crore projects including the state-wide Radio Diagnostic and Laboratory Services and the revamped 108 Ambulance Emergency Response System to the people of Punjab.
Launching the ambitious projects from Batala and Mohali on the auspicious occasion of the 534th marriage anniversary (Vyaah Purb) of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Chief Minister also dedicated the first-of-its-kind ‘CM e-Clinic facility’ pilot at Batala to effectively address shortage of specialist medical counselling and treatment in rural areas.
“There can be no better day than the Babe-Da-Vyah Utsav, which is being celebrated today, for the launch of these facilities, Capt Amarinder said, extending his greetings to the people of Punjab on the pious occasion.
“The highly-specialised medical services to be rolled out across the State by end November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor sections for whom expert private sector medical care is out of their reach,” said Capt Amarinder.
For this project, Punjab has been divided into six parts in which one MRI each and 25 CT Scan facilities for one each for every district hospital at a cost of Rs 80 crore besides one Reference Lab, 30 District Laboratories and 95 collection centres would be covering 23 state districts at a cost of Rs 25 crore to ensure round the clock medical services to our people, the Chief Minister disclosed adding that five percent of total cases will be provided free diagnostic facilities to provide help to needy and poor.
The projects entail an employment generation potential for 750 people who would be trained as technicians.
The innovative e-Clinic facility, set up at Batala would greatly leverage the concept of tele-consultation with medical specialists of patients in rural areas, the Chief Minister said, adding that the success of this pilot project would be replicated across the state in near future. The projects would be launched by the State Government on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode in collaboration with Krsnaa Diagnostics Limited.
Under the revamped ‘Dial 108’ Ambulance Emergency Response System Service, innovations in Information Technology have been co-opted into the existing 104 and 112 medical helplines further streamlining the SOS service delivery mechanism. Relatives of patients can track the movement of ambulances online for quick and timely delivery of emergency service.
Number of ambulances has been already increased to 325 to be further enhanced to 400 in the coming days. 23 Advanced Life Support Ambulances have been added to the existing fleet too, the Chief Minister added.