The Covid-19 pandemic has not only proved to be a great disrupter of all socio-economic activities, but also has taken a great toll on the already fragile health infrastructure of the country. As a major portion of the healthcare resources have been channelized to attend the pandemic, the hardest hit has been the routine medical care necessities. The alarm was raised previously by various functionaries of the health fraternity and the recent report made public by the National Health Authority (NHA), a government agency, is a further corroboration to it. Its essence is that if an immediate attention is not given, very soon, the national public healthcare structure catering normal cases will deteriorate further, which means more suffering for the economically disadvantaged sections, its principal beneficiaries.
The comprehensive report titled ‘PM-JAY Under Lockdown: Evidence on Utilization Trends’ prepared by NHA taking into 22-week data (January 1 to June 2) i.e. including full tenure of the lockdown has mentioned that there has been a significant decline in utilisation of the Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana by beneficiaries with average weekly claims falling by 51%. Delving a little deeper will reveal that the fall has been witnessed both over non-critical and critical healthcare heads and a few picks will be necessary for a general understanding of the actualities. Under PM-JAY, which is the world’s largest health insurance scheme covering approximately 10 crore poor and vulnerable households with cashless hospital care for over 1,300 surgical and medical services through an annual Rs 5 lakh coverage per family, claims during lockdown fell by 64 % for cancer treatment, 28 % for childbirth services, 24 % for neonatal care, 78 % in cardiovascular surgeries and 46% for medical services. Significantly, from the section of the report dealing with state-wise variation in utilization declines during lockdown, it is really disturbing to note that all states except Sikkim have seen a fall, with varying degrees though.
And, much to the discomfort of Arunachal Pradesh, the overall decline in claims is as high as 85% placing the state third in the list only preceded by A & N Islands (100%) and Assam (97%). It can’t be doubted that the prolonged lockdown has been the principal reason for under-utilisation of the scheme and as the report admits, it will be a challenging and a time-consuming affair to return back to normalcy for the national public healthcare apparatus.
Both the Centre and the State government must take notice of this disturbing trend and take special measures to keep running the normal healthcare necessities. Covid is not going to disappear so soon. But that should not mean that the most-needed of the populace will continue to suffer indefinitely. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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