Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated a host of facilities that include Geriatric Sunday OPD, 3T MRI Facility, Biplane Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and ESWL Lab at Safdarjung Hospital, here today.During the visit, Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that under our inspirational Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, health has been positioned as one of the top agenda of the Government and today’s development reflects that the Prime Minister is committed to fundamentally transforming the country and give quality health services to the people. “Under the leadership of our Prime Minister we are aggressively moving towards setting up state-of-the-art health facilities with the best equipment, techniques and buildings. These are comparable to the very best in the country and the world,” he said. As we move towards the vision of the Prime Minister of a New India by 2022, health shall be one of the key determinants and components of our advanced country, he stated.While interacting with the staff, para-medics and doctors at the Emergency Block, Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that the aim of everyone in the hospital should be to see that no patient is turned back or referred to any other emergency facility. “Let us aspire to build our capacities and strengths such that we are able to attend to each emergency patient that needs our care”, he stated. He took a round of various wards, labs, OTs, Cath Labs, geriatric and pediatric ICUs, and interacted with the patients and their caregivers. He also reviewed the processes of registration of patients, referral and other services. He also visited the new Super Specialty Block and planted a sapling.
Dr Harsh Vardhan visited the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendra within the premises. He was told that medicines which cost as much as Rs.500-600 in the market are sold at very economical rates of as low as Rs.105 at the Kendra. “The government is committed to ensuring that the out-of-pocketexpenditure on medicines which form a significant part of healthcare cost is considerably reduced through such pharmacy centres”, he stated.He further stated that one of the priorities of the government is to expand quality tertiary health care facilities in all parts of the country. With the announcement of new AIIMS, the total number of AIIMS will go up to 22. Further, super specialty blocks along with MCH wings are being set up in many districthospitaland medical college across the country. Apart from the already planned 82, additional 75 district hospitals are being upgraded to medical colleges all over the country by 2022. The Union Health Minister further stated that the budget for the Health Ministry showed an appreciable increase of more than 19%in the total outlay in the General Budget this year. This reflects the importance accorded to the health sector in the country, he added.“Under the guidance and visionary leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Modiji, Ayushman Bharat Yojana has been launched with its two important pillars of Health & Wellness Centres (HWCs), and PMJAY. It aims to benefit the poor and vulnerable. While stress is on preventive health through HWCs, catastrophic expenditure on healthcare has been ameliorated through the PMJAY component, Dr Harsh Vardhan further said. He highlighted that one of the key benefits of PMJAY is its portability. A person can now access quality healthcare services anywhere in the country without having to worry about the money. Dr Harsh Vardhan also interacted with few PMJAY beneficiaries who have received costly treatments at Safdurjung Hospital, free of charge.The Geriatric OPD for the elderly will be open every Sunday starting from 28th July, 2019 (tomorrow) in the Main OPD Complex in these following specialties:Medicine, General Surgery, ENT, Ophthalmology, and Orthopaedics. The OPD timings will be from 9.30 AM to 12.30 PM and registration timings will be 9 AM to 11.30 AM. Patients would be asked to come on the day of the OPD of respective unit for follow up visits. The dispensary will issue medicines from 9.30 AM to 1.00 PM. The required laboratory and radiological investigations will be done through emergency services of New Emergency Block (NEB) as already being done for emergency patients.