Bengal gets Rs 3,000 cr for healthcare revamp, Ayushman Bharat card rollout from July: Suvendu

West Bengal's Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced the state has received around Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre for revamping public healthcare, with Rs 500 crore already transferred.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday said the state has received sanction of around Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre in the current fiscal for revamping the public healthcare sector, of which Rs 500 crore has already been transferred.

He also said cards under the Centre's Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme are likely to be distributed to beneficiaries in the state from July.

The announcement of fund inflows to the state from the Centre for social welfare schemes stood in contrast to the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government's sustained allegations that funds worth around Rs 1 lakh crore remained withheld by the BJP-led Union government.

''We have received a sanction of Rs 2,103 crore from the Union Health Ministry for the National Health Mission (NHM) for the current financial year, a fourth of which, Rs 500 crore, has already been transferred by the Centre,'' Adhikari said at a press meet from the state secretariat, Nabanna.

The Centre has also allocated its share of the Rs 976 crore for the Ayushman Bharat scheme for this fiscal, he said.

''In all, we have received a sanction of over Rs 3,000 crore, of which we have already received Rs 500 crore,'' Adhikari added.

The chief minister addressed the media after he, along with senior officers of the state government, held an hour-long virtual meeting with officials of the Union Health Ministry led by minister JP Nadda.

The meeting was held less than 24 hours after Adhikari held a series of high-profile meetings in Delhi on Friday, including with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

''We also requested the health minister to release the NHM allocations for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscals, which weren't taken by the previous government, to which Nadda said he was yet to receive the utilisation certificate for 2021-22,'' Adhikari said.

''He has assured us the reimbursement of funds for those two fiscals as well, provided our health and finance secretaries send him the required UC by May 30,'' the CM said.

Adhikari said about six crore holders of the Swasthya Sathi cards issued by the erstwhile TMC government in Bengal will be transferred to the ambit of the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the first phase, and the number of beneficiaries will subsequently increase.

Opportunities will also be made available to fresh applicants who did not opt for the Swasthya Sathi cards, he added.

''We are hoping to start the distribution of Ayushman Bharat cards from July, the enrolment work for which has already begun,'' Adhikari said.

The chief minister said the state is planning to ink an agreement with the Centre for inclusion in the Ayushman Arogya Mandir network in the first week of June to extend the benefits of Ayushman Bharat to the migrant residents of the state.

''Over one crore migrants from Bengal stay outside the state for work or education purposes. The agreement, which will be signed at an event in the national capital in the presence of ministers and bureaucrats of both the state and the Centre, will extend the Ayushman benefit to the migrants as well,'' Adhikari said.

The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) provides health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

The CM also announced that the health department would ramp up recruitment of doctors, nurses and other healthcare service workers in state-run health centres.

''The recruitment rate in this area by the previous government was abysmally low -- 53 per cent as against the national rate of 98 per cent. We will fill up these positions in the next three months on a priority basis by means of a transparent recruitment policy,'' he said.

Adhikari alleged that the policy of non-cooperation and opposition with the Centre, followed by the Mamata Banerjee government, had led to an all-pervasive atmosphere of negativity in the public healthcare sector, the cost of which was borne by the general public.

''The people of Bengal were deprived of the benefits of Central schemes because of the complete breakdown of government-to-government communication during the previous era. We will bring about a landmark change in that sphere and pass on the benefits to the people,'' he added.

Adhikari said that the state would soon draw up proposals to set up medical colleges in Alipurduar, Kalimpong, Dakshin Dinajpur districts and at Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman to fulfil PM Modi's pre-poll commitment of setting up government medical colleges in every district of the state.

In addition, a proposal to set up an AIIMS campus in north Bengal will also be sent, he added.

''Nadda has assured me that funds won't be a problem in revamping the state health sector. Three central teams would soon visit our state to brief our officials from the CMOH level and above and conduct short-duration in-house training on the existing schemes offered by the ministry,'' the CM said.

Adhikari also announced the official launch of the preventive vaccination for cervical cancer for girl children aged between 14-15 years and a workshop for TB-free India to be attended by the state's MPs and MLAs on May 30.

He said the state was drawing up a proposal to enhance the number of PM Jan Ausadhi Kendras from the current 117 to 469 from block-level health centres to district hospitals across Bengal.

''Discount on critical and life-saving drugs at these kendras, under the PM Amrit Bharat project, range from 50 to 80 per cent. For someone spending Rs 2,000 a month on diabetes and hypertension medicines, one can expect their expenses to come down to Rs 200 once these centres start operating,'' Adhikari said.

Adhikari named Kolkata and the districts of Murshidabad, Purba Bardhaman, Birbhum and Malda with alarmingly high infant mortality rates.

''The earlier government had no effective monitoring system for mortality among babies aged five years or less. We have now decided to take immediate action to reduce infant mortality,'' he said.

The CM also announced laying special emphasis on seven districts where leprosy cases are higher than the national average.