Hospitals and dispensaries run by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)

179. SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI
        SHRI SELVAM G.

Will the Minister of LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT be pleased to state:

(a)the total number of hospitals and dispensaries run by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in the States of Tamil Nadu and Odisha along with the number of beneficiaries as on date;

(b)whether the number of hospitals under ESI Health Scheme is very less compared to ever increasing number of beneficiaries and if so, the details thereof and the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard;

(c)whether infrastructure and medical facilities are very poor in ESI run hospitals and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the steps taken by the Government to improve infrastructure and medical facilities in ESI run hospitals;

(d)whether ESIC facilities are not being given to the employees working in most of the private companies of the country; and

(e)if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government in this regard during the last five years and if not, the reasons therefor, State- wise?

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 179 FOR 13.03.2023 BY SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI AND SHRI SELVAM G. REGARDING HOSPITALS AND DISPENSARIES UNDER ESIC.

(a): There are 10 Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) hospitals in the state of Tamil Nadu and 8 ESI hospitals in the state of Odisha. Out of them, 2 ESI hospitals in each state are run by the ESI Corporation directly.

As regards dispensaries, there are 225 ESI dispensaries in Tamil Nadu and 41 ESI dispensaries in Odisha. These dispensaries are run by the respective states. The ESI Corporation has also established one Dispensary-cum-Branch office(DCBO) in both these states and these are run by it directly.

At present, there are 1,38,09,385 and 28,77,253 ESI beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu and Odisha respectively.

(b): To provide medical benefit to the increasing number of ESI beneficiaries, the ESI Corporation (ESIC), over the period, has given in- principle approval for setting up of 86 new ESI hospitals. At present, there are 160 ESI hospitals in the country. Additionally, tie-up arrangements have been made with public/ private hospitals for providing cashless in-patient medical services to ESI beneficiaries, in case, ESI hospital or in-house medical services in a particular hospital is not available.

Further, the ESI Corporation has also collaborated with Ayushmaan Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY) to provide secondary and tertiary care medical services to ESI beneficiaries through PMJAY empanelled hospitals in the country.

(c) to (e): ESI hospitals provide secondary care medical services in various specialties, namely Medicine, Surgery, Gynae & Obstetrics, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics etc. Further, ESI Corporation has taken various steps to improve the quality of medical services in ESI Hospitals, as under:

• Enhancement of sanctioned staff strength of ESIC hospitals.
• Enhancement of 50% of bed strength, if bed occupancy is more than 70% in ESIC/ESI Scheme (ESIS) hospitals for last three consecutive years.
   
• Formation of state ESI societies so that States’ have financial and administrative freedom to take decision for improvement of medical services.
• Allocation of additional budget under Project  Implementation Plan (PIP) for State ESI Schemes.
• The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation provides Rs.200/- per IP per annum over and above ceiling to the state government, where the bed occupancy in all the State run ESIS hospitals is more than 70% during the previous financial year.

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