Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMASBY) on Monday. An official statement said that PMASBY will be one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure. It will be in addition to the National Health Mission.
“The objective of PMASBY is to fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas. It will provide support to 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 High Focus States. Further, 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres will be established in all the States,” said the statement.
Diagnostic services
Modi will launch this scheme during his visit to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday. “Critical care services will be available in all districts of the country with more than 5 lakh population through Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services,” said the statement, adding that people will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the public healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country.
Integrated Public Health Labs will also be set up in all the districts.
Under PMASBY, a National Institution for One Health, four New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South East Asia Region, nine Biosafety Level III laboratories, and five New Regional National Centre for Disease Control will be set up.
PMASBY targets to build an IT-enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels in Metropolitan areas. The Integrated Health Information Portal will be expanded to all States/UTs to connect public health labs.
It also aims at Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, for effectively detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks. It will also work towards building up trained frontline health workforce to respond to any public health emergency.
In addition to this scheme, PM Modi will also inaugurate nine medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh.
Later in the day, Modi will also inaugurate various development projects worth more than ₹5,200 crore for his parliamentary constituency at Varanasi.