“Building a healthcare system that is resilient and sturdy forms the foundation of Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat”. This was stated by Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare as shechaired the “Universal Health Coverage Day,2021” ceremony and the day-long workshop of technical discussions on the theme “Leave No One’s Health Behind: Invest in Health Systems For All”, here today.With focus on provisioning of quality healthcare covering primary, secondary and tertiary spheres, the Union Minister highlighted that Government of India haslaunched the all-encompassing Ayushman Bharat Yojana in 2018 with the goal of “Sabka Saath and Sabka Viswas” in mind. While primary healthcare with the aim of providing services close to the community was launched in 2018, this was strengthened with AB-PMJAY in September 2018, Ayushman Digital Mission and PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission this year. “The focus is on wellness and quality of care”, she added.She noted that while COVID led to delay in several activities all over the world, in India, work on Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) increased despite the pandemic. More than 81,000 HWCs have been operationalised as on date, and the target of 1.10 lakh HWCs will be completed by end of March 2022.
“We are moving ahead to meet the goal of Universal Health Coverage with “Whole of Society” approach with Sahbhagyata and Sankalp”, Dr Pawar stated.The Union Minister expressed her gratitude and appreciation to all the healthcare workers for their exemplary work during the challenging times of the COVID pandemic. “The concept of “Health For All” is a guiding motto under which we work as “health soldiers”, she said.She congratulated the states and all frontline healthcare workers and the development partners for the achievement of more than 133 crore vaccination doses under the nationwide COVID vaccination drive.The Union Minister felicitated the states under the categories of “Best AB-HWC – Primary Healthcare Team Awards”, “Best Performing State/UT under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, “Screening of NCDs and common cancers at AB-HWCs”, “Creation of Digital Health IDs” and “PMJAY-NHA Awards”. She also launched a coffee table book on good and replicable healthcare practices,and training manuals for primary healthcare team on expanded package of services. An SMS feature was also launched under the NPCDCS Program which will help in creating awareness on non-communicable diseases.Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, Dr.RS Sharma, CEO, NHA, Shri Vikas Sheel, AS&MD(NHM), Shri Vishal Chauhan, JS (Policy), and senior officials of the Ministry were present on the occasion.Dr. Roderico Orfin, WHO representative to India and Dr Sangeeta Patel, Director, Health Office at USAID participated in the event.