Drastic Dip In Ayushman Bharat Admissions Tells Kashmir Story

In the week beginning June 24 there were 2050 hospital admissions, in the July 1 week there were another 1747. Between July 8 and 15 there were 1452 admissions, between then and July 12 there were 1688 admissions. The figure stood at 1619 in the July 22-29 week, which rose to 1743 in the week starting July 29. However in the next three weeks starting from August 5, the totals admissions stood at 179, 163 and 250 respectively.

Sources in the National health Authority say that since PMJAY is a completely online system, the program suffered in the aftermath of the shutting down of internet services.

PMJAY was inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi on September 23 last year. Under the program, 10.74 crore families are eligible for a health cover of Rs 5 lakh each. A total of 1,133,694 beneficiary cards were issued in the state till August. That was 58% of the total number of possible beneficiaries in the state.

Hospitalization rate per lakh population dipped from 57 before August 5 to just 6 in the there weeks after that. The valley hospitals which before the change in status had been among the best performing institutes under the program saw zero admissions for days. These include the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Noora Hospital, Superspeciality Hospital, Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital and Khyber Medical Institute in Srinagar, Ibn Sina Hospital in Badgam, Mmabm Hospital Anantnag and the District Hospital Baramullah.