PM Modi to inaugurate medical colleges, launch health scheme in UP tomorrow

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be paying a visit to the state of Uttar Pradesh tomorrow to inaugurate nine medical colleges in underserved districts. He will be launching Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMASBY) in addition to inaugurating various development projects with an estimated worth of over Rs 5200 crore in Varanasi.

PMASBY scheme by the government of India will be an addition to the National Health Mission to strengthen healthcare infrastructure across the country. It aims at filling critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both the urban and rural areas.

The scheme will aim to make critical care services available in all the districts of the country with more than 5 lakh population through Critical Care Hospital Blocks with the remaining districts being covered through referral services. A network of laboratories providing diagnostic services will be made available under the scheme.

The centre plans to expand the healthcare capacity by opening a National Institution for One Health, four New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South East Asia Region, nine Biosafety Level III laboratories and five New Regional National Centre for Disease Control. It further targets to build an IT enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at all levels. Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units is also one of targets set under the scheme.

Nine medical colleges will be inaugurated in the districts of Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Jaunpur. Eight Medical Colleges have been sanctioned under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme and one Medical College at Jaunpur has been made functional by the State Government through its own resources.

The Governor of the state, Chief Minister of UP and Union Health Minister will mark their presence at the inauguration event.