LG Manoj Sinha to lay foundation stone today in Budgam

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government is setting up the first of its kind Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) tertiary hospital in Kashmir which will provide free medical care to labourers in the organised sector, as well as to their families, for specialised treatments including heart surgeries and knee replacements, for an unlimited period.
Kashmir Reader has learnt that the hospital is being built at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and land has already been identified for it by the J&K Department of Labour and Employment at Ompora Industrial area in Budgam district.
Commissioner Secretary of the department, Saurabh Bhagat, told Kashmir Reader that the department had been striving for the hospital for the past one-and-a-half year and it finally bore fruit after the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, approved the project last year.
Gangwar is expected to lay the foundation stone of the hospital on Monday along with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
The ESIC Hospital in Kashmir holds major significance for the organised labour sector as it will provide 100 percent medical reimbursement to employees as well as their families for an unlimited period of time at a specified premium, unlike the union government’s Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY) which has a Rs 5 lakh annual cap for the medical reimbursements, Bhagat informed.
Any organised labourer getting a salary of up to Rs 20,000 can avail of the scheme, Bhagat said.
He further informed that Kashmir valley so far had only four dispensaries for the basic treatment of labourers – at Rangreth, Baghi Ali Mardan, Pulwama and Lassipora.
The new ESIC Hospital will cater to entire Kashmir and will have three super specialty departments: Oncology, Urology and Neurology. These are apart from as many as eighteen routine departments including Pediatrics and Gynecology, the Commissioner Secretary L&E informed.
“A labourer can even do his/her heart surgery or a knee replacement for free,” he added.
Besides providing free treatment to labourers and their families for an unlimited period, the ESIC Hospital will also create 300 odd vacancies of doctors and other paramedical staff, who would be hired according to industry practices, Bhagat said.
The ESIC will be required to register the beneficiary employees for the scheme, after which they will avail the scheme through a special health card, Bhagat informed.

Irshad Khan