Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has initiated the process of building a 100-bedded Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospital by performing Bhoomi Pujan ritual on Sunday at his constituency Bareilly.
Notably, Gangwar is an eight-time Member of Parliament. “Bhoomi Pujan of 100-bedded new ESIC hospital, Bareilly, was done by Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment yesterday (on Sunday),” the labour ministry said in a statement.
During his address, Gangwar hailed and expressed gratitude for the efforts of central as well as state governments and also district administration for realising the dream into reality of medical needs of the people of his constituency. In the statement, he also said this hospital will now ease the difficulties of IPs, who are insured persons of ESI scheme run by ESIC, and beneficiaries as earlier they had to either travel to AIIMS, Delhi or Lucknow for higher (level) medical treatment.
The minister has also announced that the facilities of this ESIC hospital will be made available to common people by charging nominal user fee. He further said this hospital will be turned into a model hospital in future. According to the statement, the construction of this hospital will be done on a plot area of 4.67 acres with an estimated cost of Rs 90 crore. It will prove to be beneficial about 2 lakh ESI beneficiaries of Bareilly and nearby areas.
This hospital will be equipped with may state-of-the-art facilities such as minor OT, resuscitation room, casualty ward, fracture clinic and X-ray. The ESIC is a social security organisation providing comprehensive social security benefits like reasonable medical care and a range of cash benefits in times of need such as employment injury, sickness and death.
The Employees” State Insurance Act applies to premises or precincts where 10 or more persons are employed. The employees drawing wages up to Rs 21,000 a month are entitled to health insurance cover and other benefits, under the ESI Act. Today, it is covering about 3.49 crore of family units of workers and providing matchless cash benefits and reasonable medical care to its 13.56 crore beneficiaries.
In 1952, the corporation had only 21 dispensaries with no ESI hospital. Currently, its infrastructure has increased manyfolds with 1,648 dispensaries or AYUSH units and 159 ESI Hospitals, 793 branch and pay offices, 43 dispensaries-cum-branch offices, and 64 regional and sub-regional offices. The ESI scheme is today stands implemented in 566 districts in 34 states and Union territories of the country.
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