Employee State Insurance (ESI) hospitals in Punjab and Haryana are facing underutilization despite the healthcare infrastructure challenges in the region. According to data shared by the central labor ministry in response to a question in the Lok Sabha, the bed occupancy in six major hospitals in Punjab and four in Haryana was below 60% in the year 2022-23.
In Punjab, the ESI hospitals have a total of 300 beds, with the lowest occupancy rate of 3% in Mandi Gobindgarh. Similarly, the occupancy rates were 25% in Phagwara, 26% in Hoshiarpur, 33% in Amritsar, 36% in Jalandhar, and 40% in Mohali. In Haryana, the ESI facilities with 950 sanctioned beds had an occupancy of 16% in Bhiwani, 30% in Jagadhari, 41% in Panipat, and 56% in Faridabad.
Experts attribute this low occupancy to the lack of specialists and facilities, which results in patients seeking healthcare services from overburdened government facilities or expensive private hospitals. The central labor ministry emphasized that while health is a state subject, it has been engaging with the states to improve the ESI hospitals. The ministry has also requested all states to transfer their ESI hospitals to the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for direct management.
The ministry highlighted ESIC’s efforts to improve these facilities with full financial support through on-account payments (OAP) and assured that opening the newly approved hospitals will address the shortage. Additionally, the ministry claimed that the state-level ESI societies have sufficient administrative and financial autonomy to make any improvements using localised decision-making.
Overall, the ministers have been working towards the goal of improving the underutilized ESI hospitals in Punjab and Haryana to ensure better healthcare access for the employees covered under the ESI scheme.
Historically, the Employee State Insurance (ESI) system in India was established to provide social security and healthcare benefits to industrial workers and their dependents. The ESI Act was enacted in 1948 and is administered by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) under the Ministry of Labor and Employment. The provision of healthcare services through ESI hospitals is an integral part of this social security system, aimed at ensuring the well-being of employees in the organized sector. Through various measures and engagements, the government continues to seek improvement in the functioning of these hospitals to better cater to the healthcare needs of the beneficiaries.
The efforts of the central labor ministry, in collaboration with the state governments and ESIC, reflect the commitment to addressing the underutilization of ESI hospitals and enhancing healthcare services for the benefit of employees in Punjab and Haryana.
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