For more than two months now, Central Government employees, pensioners, and their families—numbering over three crore—have been struggling to get their routine medicines and medical services, all because of a troubled new digital portal introduced under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).
The issue began in the last week of April, when the Ministry of Health replaced the trusted Health Management Information System (HMIS) managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with a new platform developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
What was meant to be an upgrade has turned into a nightmare for lakhs of families who depend on CGHS for free medicines and treatment. Frequent server crashes, login failures, and data update problems have crippled the system, leading to delays of over 30 days in the supply of essential medicines.
“I haven’t received my blood pressure and cholesterol medicines in over a month,” says a retired government official, his voice tinged with frustration. “I’ve served this country for 35 years, and now I have to run from one dispensary to another, only to be told the system is down.”
For many, the situation is dire. A diabetic patient in Delhi shared that he’s been forced to buy insulin from private pharmacies for the past four weeks. “It’s not about the money,” he says, “It’s about the principle. We were promised care, and now even basic medicines are not being delivered.”
Insiders blame the transition from NIC—an agency with decades of experience managing government portals—to C-DAC, which, according to sources, lacks the manpower and expertise to handle a portal of this scale. What’s more, officials claim that despite being given ₹100 crore to develop the new portal, C-DAC outsourced the job to a private firm.
“The new system is a complete mess,” said a senior CGHS official who himself is waiting for his monthly medication. “The HMIS barely works. Dispensaries across the country are unable to update records or check supply chains because the servers keep crashing.”
Despite rising complaints, the Ministry of Health has remained silent on why NIC was replaced or when the problems will be resolved. RTI queries filed by The Pioneer to C-DAC seek clarity on the value of the contract and the involvement of private players.
For now, CGHS staff say they are overwhelmed. “There’s a massive backlog of data that needs to be re-entered into the new system. That’s part of the reason for the delays,” said one official. But with no clear timeline or official explanation, frustration continues to mount among beneficiaries.
“We’re trying to fix the problem,” said a CGHS spokesperson briefly, but gave no assurance on how soon things would return to normal.
Meanwhile, for the elderly pensioners and chronically ill patients dependent on CGHS, each passing day without access to critical medicines is not just inconvenient—it’s life-threatening.