MD ECHS Update- 31 Jul ************************* From: Maj Gen J George Date: 31 July 2013 07:00 Dear Esteemed Veterans, It has been and will always continue to be the endeavour of ECHS to make quality healthcare accessible to our esteemed veterans. ECHS is still at a fledgling state and is barely a decade old. It is still evolving but has made substantial progress since its humble beginning on 01 Apr 2003. Numerous options were considered before a conscious decision was taken by its founding fathers to adopt the existing format of having Polyclinics spread across the length and breadth of the Country for provision of "Outpatient Treatment" and substantiate this by the facilities provided by the Service Hospitals and civil empanelled facilities for provision of "Inpatient Treatment". The model has certain inadequacies because there are a lot of Stations where both Service and civil medical facilities are not available and the veterans are forced to travel long distances to avail quality medicare. Some of the options considered before homing onto the existing format are:- (a) Health Insurance Scheme. (b) Have a network of Veterans Hospitals created across the Country. (c) Replicate the Central Health Scheme Model for veterans of the Defence Forces as well. The existing format was chosen primarily because a large percentage of our esteemed veterans reside in the rural areas. 297 out of the 426 Polyclinics were thus established in non-military stations. While there are certain inadequacies in the way the Scheme is presently structured, numerous steps have been initiated over a period of time to iron out these deficiencies. Some of the steps that have been taken in the recent past are as under:- (a) Introduction of on-line processing of empanelled hospital bills as the delay in processing and payment of the bills of empanelled medical facilities is what led to a large number of hospitals expressing reluctance to continue with ECHS. The delay in processing of bills manually was due to non- availability of dedicated staff for ECHS related tasks at various Formation HQs. 10 out of the 28 Regional Centres of ECHS have been brought on-line over the last one year and the endeavour is to bring the remainder 18 Regional Centres on- line by 01 Oct 2013. With this, a number of hospitals are once again opting to join ECHS. (b) The pay of contractual staff in ECHS polyclinics was quite low and this was one of the reasons for ECHS not being able to get adequately qualified staff in its polyclinics. This has been overcome to a very large extent with pay of contractual staff being brought at par with those in CGHS/ ESIC. (c) Operationalisation of all the sanctioned ECHS polyclinics at the earliest possible. 130 polyclinics have been made functional over the last one year alone. (d) Acquisition of land and construct ECHS polyclinic buildings so as to enhance the quality of services and improve the infrastructure in the polyclinics. 21 Polyclinic buildings have been constructed/are under construction across the Country. (e) 'Outsourcing of Pharmacy Operations' of ECHS was one of the priority areas and this was aimed at improving availability of medicines in ECHS Polyclinics. This is yet to fructify. However, the Office of DG AFMS has taken a number of steps like having Rate Contracts and Price Agreements to speed up the procurement process and enhance satisfaction levels. (f) Some of the measure that will have wide ranging impact and are awaiting approval are as under:- (i) Grant of Fixed Medical Allowance to ECHS beneficiaries residing in Districts which does not have ECHS Polyclinics. (ii) Grant of full reimbursement of amount incurred by ECHS beneficiaries when admitted to non-empanelled medical facilities in an emergency. (iii) Extending ECHS benefits to World War II veterans. Valuable feedbacks are received from the veterans on a regular basis and it has contributed immensely towards improving the scheme. Such inputs are always welcome. One of the suggestions received is that the present format of having ECHS Polyclinics and empanelled medical facilities should be done away with and have Medical Insurance/ Health Insurance instead. Views of our esteemed veterans on the same are solicited so that the Scheme can be carried forward along a path that provides optimum benefits to its beneficiaries. Warm regards, Maj Gen J George MD ECHS
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 09:49:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015