MP with highest Ayushman beneficiaries treated only around 20k Covid patients

INDORE: Less than 20,000 Covid-19 treatment in Ayushman scheme in Madhya Pradesh in the last two years of pandemic has put the state behind southern states, showed a union government reply in Rajya Sabha.

The neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have treated more patients under the Ayushman scheme, showed reply.

The minister of state in ministry of health and family welfare Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar on March 22 in a response before the upper house put a state-wise list of Covid-19 patients treated under Ayushman scheme till March 16.

The state-wise list showed that Madhya Pradesh had treated only 19471 Covid-19 patients and did only 10,944 testing under the Ayushman scheme. This is when the state had maximum Ayushman beneficiaries in any of the states in the country.

The states like Andhra Pradesh (2.15 lakh), Kerala (1.44 lakh), Karnataka (1.89 lakh), Maharashtra (1.79 lakh), Tamil Nadu (33,796), Chhattisgarh (45,610) and Rajasthan (28,582) had treated more Covid-19 patients under Ayushman scheme, showed the reply.

MP Ayushman CEO Anurag Choudhary told TOI, “The state government has treated Covid-19 patients free of cost in private hospitals by taking over a fixed proportion of their beds during pandemic.”

“These Covid-19 patients include Ayushman beneficiaries. These counts however aren’t in scheme spending. So, the Covid-19 number Ayushman is lower in state in the reply”, said Choudhary.

The state government had treated over 33,000 Covid-19 patients free of cost till August last year in these private hospitals.

“The other states like Maharashtra and southern had more treating capacity than Madhya Pradesh. So, their count is more for Covid-19 patients under the scheme”, said Choudhary. The beneficiaries number getting treatment rose rapidly in the second wave and in period afterwards because of the state government pushing for more empanelment of private institutions. TNN