Labour ministry expands ESIC health check-up pilot to 15 cities

New Delhi: Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday announced the expansion of the pilot scheme of annual preventive health check-up programme for ESIC members aged above 40 years to 15 cities from the existing five.

In December, 2021, Yadav had launched the annual preventive health check-up programme for Employees' State Insurance Corporation's (ESIC) insured members aged above 40 years in pilot mode at ESI hospitals in Ahmedabad, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Varanasi and Kolkata.

Addressing at 187th meeting of the ESIC, Yadav said, "In last (ESIC) meeting, we have approved the proposal that we will launch a pilot scheme for free medical check of insured persons of the age of 40 and above in five hospitals in Hyderabad, Faridabad, Varanasi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The results are satisfactory."

He informed that now the ESIC in its meeting has approved second phase of pilot and expanded it to total 15 cities.

Under this pilot, factories/MSME clusters will be considered as a unit and ESIC will coordinate with them for the preventive health check-ups of the workers, he added.

It is objective of the 'Fit India' movement that all should be healthy in the country, the minister stated.

However, the name of the 10 cities to be added to the pilot would be announced later.

He urged the industrial associations and trade unions to come together for facilitating free medical check of MSMEs together (in one bunch) in their area where workers number in each unit is 10 or 15.

He also informed that the ESIC has approved the proposal to conduct cleanliness drive and organise Yoga camps for one week ahead of Yoga Day on June 21.

Yadav also announced that vacancies for appointing 5,000 doctors at ESIC hospitals will be filled in this calendar year expeditiously.

He also said that it was felt in the ESIC meeting that there is a huge dearth of doctors and staff at the ESIS hospitals.

Noting the disparity in scales of medical professionals and others personnel between ESIC and ESIS ( ESIC hospitals run by states) to be bridged, he stated that remuneration of the doctors and staff to be revised.

He also talked about ESIC and ESIS to digitize health record of all insured persons to, integrate its data with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission for boosting telemedicine services through e-Sanjivani portal.

Yadav further informed that pending projects of the ESIC will be expedited as well as construction work of the hospitals of the ESIC as well as doctors and staff availability will be taken care off and called on the doctors to join the ESIC hospitals serving the poor and assured that remuneration of the doctors and staff would be revised by the ESIC corporation.

"Also, open, digital and transparent transfer policy for the employees will be put in force", said the minister

Yadav inaugurated two ESIC management dashboards viz. Construction project dashboard and hospital dashboard. The health dashboard will give key information at a glance related to the performance of the ESI hospital.

It will also provide the viewers the current occupancy and OPD footfall at the hospital dashboard. The construction dashboard will give key information about various construction projects of the ESIC.

Addressing on the occasion, Rameshwar Teli, Minister of State for Labour & Employment pitched for extending medical benefits to plantation labourers in uncovered areas and the informed about the various schemes of the government for the welfare of workers and labourers across the country.