Approximately 14 lakh Ayushman Vay Vandana cards have been created for senior citizens aged 70 years and above under the expanded Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to provide free treatment benefits irrespective of their socio-economic status. Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The inclusion which was announced recently offers cashless healthcare services related to 1961 procedures across 27 medical specialties, including general medicine, general surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, oncology etc. which can be availed by different age groups.
Among these, treatment services like Hemodialysis/Peritoneal Dialysis, Acute Ischemic Stroke, Accelerated hypertension, Total Hip Replacement, Total Knee Replacement, PTCA, inclusive of diagnostic angiogram, Single Chamber Permanent Pacemaker Implantation, Double Chamber Permanent Pacemaker Implantation etc. are available to eligible senior citizens as well. Further, States have been provided flexibility to further customise the health benefit packages to local context.
The Health Ministry added that as on October 31, a total of 29,870 hospitals are empanelled out of which 13,173 are private hospitals.
Vaccination services
Meanwhile, giving information on U-WIN — a digital platform for digitalisation of all vaccination services provided under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) — which is aimed at ensuring timely administration of life-saving vaccines to pregnant women and children (from birth to 16 years) against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, the Ministry said the annual target of UIP is around 2.9 crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore infants (0-1 year).
The Minister noted that the nation-wide rollout of U-WIN had been completed.
“Its key features include ‘Anytime Access’ and ‘Anywhere’ vaccination services, generation of Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) and Child ABHA, citizen module, automated SMS alerts, QR-based e-Vaccination Certificate and offline mode for data entry by vaccinators,’’ he added.
The initial pilot of U-WIN was conducted across 63 districts in 35 States/union territories followed by the nation-wide rollout. As per data submitted by the Ministry as on November 25, 7.43 crore beneficiaries have been registered, 1.26 crore vaccination sessions have been held and 27.77 crore administered vaccine doses have been recorded on U-WIN. The increased daily usage of the platform has further created awareness and ready access of immunisation services among both citizens and frontline workers.
Published – November 29, 2024 06:44 pm IST