No compromise on quality of health services provided at Aiims, says Nadda

Nadda also said in the Lok Sabha that the government has covered 62 crore people of the country under AB-PMJAY

Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Friday asserted that there will be no compromise on the quality of health services provided at AIIMS across the country even though there is a heavy rush of patients there.

Nadda also said in the Lok Sabha that the government has covered 62 crore people of the country under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) under which health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh is given to a family per year.

"There is no compromise on the quality of health care in AIIMS. AIIMS is a brand and that has to he maintained," he said during the Question Hour.

The minister said late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had set up one AIIMS, late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had set up six and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up 22 AIIMS in different parts of India.

There is a heavy rush of patients in all AIIMS and demands for setting up new AIIMS keep coming, he said.

Replying to another question on AB-PMJAY, Nadda said the primary aim of the scheme is to provide health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to approximately 62 crore beneficiaries.

This includes six crore senior citizens of age 70 years and above belonging to 4.5 crore families irrespective of their socio-economic status.

Nadda said there has been continuous efforts to review and reform the AB PM-JAY so that newer diseases can be covered under the scheme.

"Recently, we have included bone-marrow transplant under the scheme," he said.

The AB PM-JAY scheme has witnessed continuous expansion of the beneficiary base. Initially, 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families comprising the bottom 40 per cent of India's population were covered under the scheme.

The Centre in January 2022 revised the beneficiary base under AB PM-JAY from 10.74 crore to 12 crore families considering India's decadal population growth of 11.7 per cent over 2011 population.

The scheme was further expanded to cover 37 lakh ASHA and Anganwadi workers across the country and their families for free healthcare benefits.