Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Union government will provide Rs 3,000 crore to Tamil Nadu over the next five years as part of the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission to address critical gaps in health infrastructure and research, particularly at the district level.

About the scheme

1. The Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure scheme attempts to improve the country’s healthcare infrastructure.
2. Its objective is to fill gaps in public health infrastructure in both urban and rural areas, particularly in critical care institutions and primary care.
3. Through a network of laboratories around the country, people will have access to a comprehensive range of diagnostic services in the public healthcare system, and integrated public health labs will be set up in all districts.
4. Critical care services would be accessible through unique critical care hospital blocks in all districts of the country with a population of more than five lakh people, while the remaining districts will be served through referral services.
5. In addition, integrated public health labs will be established in all districts, providing individuals with access to “a broad spectrum of diagnostic services” through a nationwide network of laboratories.
6. A network of surveillance laboratories will be developed at the block, district, regional, and national levels to create an IT-enabled disease surveillance system.
7. The Integrated Health Information Portal, which will be expanded to all states and UTs, will connect all public health labs.

Benefits of the scheme Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

In ten high-focus states, it will fund 17,788 rural health and wellness centres. In addition, 11,024 urban health and wellness centres will be built around the country.

Institutions to be set-up under the scheme Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

A national institute for one health, four new national institutes for virology, a regional research platform for the WHO South East Asia Region, nine biosafety level-III laboratories, and five new regional national centres for disease control will all be established as part of the project.

Overview of India’s health infrastructure

India has long been in need of an extensive healthcare system. A survey finds that:

• Public healthcare is available in 70% of the places. Rural areas, on the other hand, had a lower availability (65%) than urban areas (87 per cent).
• The survey also discovered that urban regions have better access to healthcare services: 64 percent of enumerators in urban areas noticed that people can walk to healthcare facilities, compared to only 37% in rural areas.
• People could walk to healthcare facilities in 46% of the examined sites, whereas they needed to take public transportation in 43% of the locations.

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