In a major development, Punjab’s Government hospitals and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESI) Hospitals will now provide healthcare facilities to all residents.
“People can now avail medical facilities and treatment in all ESI Hospitals of the State. And the ESI card holders and beneficiaries can also avail medical facilities in any of the Punjab Government hospitals,” said the state Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Vini Mahajan on Friday.
She said that earlier, there was no provision for the general public to avail specialist services in the ESI hospitals of the state. “But now onwards, these shall be available for general public. On the other hand, the ESI card holders and beneficiaries would now be able to take cashless treatment in ESI as well as other Punjab government hospitals of the state,” she said.
Mahajan said that necessary instructions to the Civil Surgeon have already been issued and such patients have even started availing treatment in other hospitals.
“Presently, there are eight lakh beneficiary families covered under ESI Scheme who are extended free facilities of up-to super specialty medical services through modes like advance payment, treatment in empanelled hospitals or reimbursement after treatment,” she said.
She said that those firms or companies, which have 10 or more employees, are covered under ESI Scheme.
“Such employees have to pay 1.75 percent of their salary, where as 4.75 percent share is borne by the employer, and the amount is deposited in account of ESI Corporation,” she added.
The expenditure of treatment is shared by Punjab government and ESIC in the ratio of 1:7, respectively.
Mahajan said that to effectively implement the benefits under ESI Scheme, Punjab has ESI setup, which comprises of six hospitals and 70 dispensaries that are divided into four zones.
“These six hospitals include a 125-bedded hospital in Amritsar, a 100-bedded hospital in Jalandhar, 50-bedded hospitals each in Phagwara and
Hoshiarpur and 30-bedded hospitals each in SAS Nagar (Mohali) and Mandi Gobindgarh,” he said.
A large number of posts of Senior Medical Officers, Medical Officers and Para Medical staff have
already been recruited in the ESI hospitals so that the patients visiting there do not face any difficulty, she said adding that services like OPD, indoor and emergency are also provided in the ESI hospitals of the state.