MemberParliament from Patiala Preneet Kaur on wednesday in Lok Sabha sought Rs. 200crore from Centre for effective Covid management in Punjab.
While speaking in the Lok Sabha duringdiscussion on the allocation proposed in Budget Estimates (BE) for theDepartment of Health & Family Welfare for 2021-22, she requested theministry to release these funds forthwith, as she said that Punjab is currentlyin the midst of witnessing a second surge in Covid cases.
ThePatiala MP also requested the Health Minister to sanction a Medical College inGurdaspur (which is a border district) under the Centre government's schemewhere eligible District Hospitals are upgraded as Medical Colleges. She alsorequested the ministry to provide a Genome Sequencing Lab in the State so thatthe respective strains of the virus may be able to be identified.
Underscoringthe need for Centre to allocate more funds to the states to fight pandemic, thePatiala MP said that, "Even though the proposed allocation at Rs. 71,269crore is 9% higher over the current year’s BE, it is actually 9.6% lower thanthe Revised Estimates (RE) of the current year which stand at Rs. 78,866crore."
Addressingthe House, she stated that the 4% increase proposed in outlay of the NationalHealth Mission is grossly inadequate.
Highlightingthe Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the Member of Parliament emphasised on the need toincrease the reach of the Scheme from the present 10 crore families.
PreneetKaur also highlighted the need to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for the largenumbers of poor and lower-income groups who may not be covered as perSocio-Economic Caste Census data but can be considered hardly well-off toafford expensive healthcare.
Raisingconcerns over the spread of the virus and the poor state of healthinfrastructure in the country, she placed a few suggestions for considerationbefore the House. She stated that "a concerted effort must be made toaugment primary healthcare facilities – so that preventive healthcare canimprove."
Further,she emphasized the need to improve the curative facilities in secondary andtertiary care hospitals in government sector through a special mission-modeproject over the next 1-2 years with the Centre and States jointly sharing thefunds allocation.
TheMember of Parliament dedicatedly urged the House to work collectively “even ifit means tightening our belt elsewhere”. She further stated that, the Centremust take the lead so that States may also follow suit.
Shealso requested the Ministry to review the current vaccination strategy toinclude vulnerable groups such as school and college teachers, bus drivers,journalists, judicial magistrates, workers in markets among others.
MPPatiala stressed on the need for States to be allowed greater flexibility indevising local strategies while broadly adhering to GoI guidelines.