Chandigarh 24 July, 2015 : People of the state can now avail medical facilities and treatment in all the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESI) Hospitals of Punjab. ESI card holders and beneficiaries can also avail medical facilities in any of the Punjab Govt. Hospitals. This was stated here today by Ms. Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab. She said that earlier there was no provision for the general public to avail specialist services in the ESI Hospitals of the state. But now onwards these shall be available for general public. On the other hand the ESI card holders and beneficiaries would now be able to take cashless treatment in ESI as well as other Punjab Govt. Hospital of the state.
Ms. Mahajan stated that necessary instructions to the Civil Surgeon have already been issued and such patients have even started availing treatment in other hospitals. She further informed that presently there are 8 lakh beneficiary families covered under ESI Scheme who are extended free facilities of up-to super specialty medical services through modes like advance payment, treatment in empanelled hospitals or reimbursement after treatment.
She further said that those firms or companies which have 10 or more employees are covered under ESI Scheme. Such employees have to pay 1.75% of their salary, where as 4.75% share is borne by the employer, and the amount is deposited in account of ESI Corporation. The expenditure of treatment is shared by Punjab Govt. and ESIC in the ratio of 1:7, respectively. The Principal Secretary said that to effectively implement the benefits under ESI Scheme, Punjab State has ESI setup, which comprises of 6 hospitals and 70 dispensaries that are divided into 4 zones. These 6 hospitals include a 125 bedded hospital in Amritsar, a 100 bedded hospital in Jalandhar, 50 bedded hospitals each in Phagwara and Hoshiarpur and 30 bedded hospitals each in SAS Nagar (Mohali) and Mandi Gobindgarh. A large number of posts of Senior Medical Officers, Medical Officers and Para Medical staff have already been recruited in the ESI hospitals so that the patients visiting there do not face any difficulty. Services like OPD, Indoor and emergency are also provided in the ESI hospitals of the state.