Shillong: The North East Regional Review Meeting organized by National Health Authority in Shillong city on Monday observed that low connectivity in remote areas is the biggest challenge for accelerating the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
The North Regional Review Meeting was attended by all the NE states. The purpose of the conference was to bring in such implementation ideas which succeed at the state level to the Centre and then share them again among other states.
Speaking with mediapersons, CEO of National Health Authority (NHA), Dr. R.S. Sharma, said they had assembled here in Shillong to review and to discuss two schemes – one is the flagship scheme of the Government of India which is the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PM-JAY) and the other is the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
The PM-JAY seeks to provide cashless treatment to 50% of India’s population.
Dr Sharma expressed satisfaction with the way the states have been implementing the schemes. “The leadership of all the NE states are very committed and passionate people. Health has become very important work in today’s context especially in the pandemic period, therefore we find that all of them are extremely enthusiastic they are adopting technology,” stated Dr Sharma.
NHA CEO also informed that several ideas were exchanged. An example of Meghalaya was taken up which was mentioned by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong that shared about how the government had constituted Village Health Councils.
The council consist of frontline workers or frontline group that basically tackles any kind of emergency in the villages. “This concept is what is required for any health delivery system. Unless it is connected to the grassroots, unless it is connected to the ground, basic ground things will not work,” said Dr Sharma.
He also informed they have talked to other seven states to implement this idea of constituting village councils and will so try to convince other states as well.
“It has been an extremely successful day one of the conference will continue tomorrow also and hope that both the program -PM-JAY and ABDM they get accelerated,” stated Dr Sharma.
He also expressed satisfaction in how the schemes are being successfully implemented. “The statistics which Meghalaya is presented indicated that we are successful especially when you have committed set of officers who are ensuring that nobody is denied treatment. We don’t want everybody to fall sick, so we don’t want to increase the statistics of people getting hospitalised but what we want is that the beneficiary who is hospitalised is not denied treatment,” said Dr Sharma.
Principal secretary (Health) Sampath Kumar informed that in Meghalaya over Rs 290 cr claims have been settled under MHIS, over 4 lakh household have benefited and 175 hospitals are connected with MHIS.
“The challenge is the connectivity issue in remote areas. When going for registration it becomes a challenge because the registration of this scheme needs to be done online to avoid duplication. For Meghalaya, more than 60% of the household is covered under this scheme,” informed Kumar.
Concerning the Digital Mission, Dr Sharma said that during the pandemic they have seen people using digital medium, people have started using WhatsApp to send prescription to doctors on video call and explaining symptoms and doctors have been advising through a video call.
“The ABDM or the Digital Mission has come at a time when we have all become comfortable with using technology to access health services. Digital framework creation by the ABDM has actually started a completely new era of delivery of health services and using technology to deliver that which will make things less costly because the person doesn’t have to travel. It will become accessible because people from remote areas can access it. There are multiple benefits of this mission,” stated Dr Sharma.
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