While Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik on Sunday launched PM Jan Arogya Yojana-Ayushman Bharat scheme at a grand function in Lucknow, surprisingly, doctors just a kilometre away from the launch event, handling patients at ‘Critical Care Unit’ of the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Combined Hospital showed a clueless face when asked about the scheme.
As reported by a national publication Economic Times, there were no banners or hoarding of the scheme in and around the hospital or even at the adjoining Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences.
“We have no information on Ayushman Bharat. There is a PM Jan Ayushdi Kendra…Are you talking about that?” a doctor in the maternity ward at RML Combined Hospital asks.
On one hand, Minister of State, Health in UP, Mahendra Singh said 374 government and 305 private hospitals stood empaneled, 1400 Ayushman Mitras were in place and the scheme would cover Six Cr people of 1.8 Cr families in UP – the highest for any state.
However, Raj Kumari, an ASHA worker wheeled in a pregnant woman – Kamini from Munsipulva village – for a C-Section operation. Kumari said that she has registered about a 100 people under Ayushman Bharat but got no incentive for it. “Name of Kamini’s family was missing from the Ayushman list I got,” she said. Those manning the enquiry counters here are clueless too.
