In order to improve the lot of senior citizens in Delhi, the doors of 20 Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) wellness centres will be thrown open to them for free consultation from September 1.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday announced this plan that would have a major impact on public health.
Unveiling a pilot project here, Dr. Vardhan, who has earlier served as Delhi Health Minister, said depending on how much demand would be there for the CGHS clinics and their ability to handle the demand from the general public, the scheme would be extended to more people in more cities.
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He acknowledged that earlier there had been wide criticism of the closed door policy of the CGHS towards people in need of medical help who were not family members of the Central government employees and so the need was felt to open the wellness centres for all senior citizens. The services for senior citizens would be available on all working days from 1-30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
However, it would not entail supply of free medicines, which would still only be for the Central employees.
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To streamline the functioning of the CGHS thatplays a critical role in healthcare in Delhi as the city houses a large number of Central Government servants, Dr. Vardhan had announced a complete review of its functioning. Three months on, the CGHS has completed a thorough review of its operations with the intention of identifying vulnerable spots which often offer scope for corruption. The Minister has ordered that all information on medical claims that remain pending for more than 30 days be put on the website: http://msotransparent.nic.in/cghsnew/index.asp. This is intended to address the issue of opaqueness in the process of reimbursing claims.
Since there were also complaints of CGHS doctors prescribing branded drugs beyond the approved list, it has now been decided that all 1,447 generic and 622 branded medicines will be prescribed. Information on all these medicines would also be available on the CGHS website.
Exceptions on drugsHowever, exceptions on drugs would be made for patients suffering from cancer and similar diseases. This apart, it has been decided that CGHS beneficiaries would be provided with medicines for a maximum of one month and in case they are travelling abroad, medicines would be provided for three months, Dr. Vardhan said.