Creation of paediatric units in all 736 districts, installation of 1,050 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with medical gas pipeline systems that will support one unit per district, and expansion of the teleconsultation platform that will offer 5 lakh consultations per day. These are among the key components to be funded through phase-II of the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Preparedness package, the Union Cabinet announced.
On Thursday, the new Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the new package to the tune of Rs 23,123 crore, designed especially to augment state governments’ existing response to the second wave, and to prepare in advance for a probable third wave.
In his first media briefing, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya underlined that the package focuses on augmenting infrastructure of paediatric care at the district level, increase in the number of beds in rural, peri-urban areas (outskirts), and support to districts’ creation of buffer stocks of essential medicines. “…On the basis of problems that we faced during the second wave, as well as on the basis of the ways to tackle this in future, we have designed the new second package,” Mandaviya said.
In the second package of Rs 23,123 crore, both Centre and states will implement the scheme, he said. “The Centre will provide Rs 15,000 crore and states will spend Rs 8,123 crore,” he said.
Mandaviya said that the decision on funding the new scheme was taken on the basis of detailed consultation with the states. He said: “….we know the requirement of beds, according to the demand we saw during the peak of the second-wave. We had a detailed consultation with the states on what should be done to ensure that in future there should not be a crisis in supply of medical oxygen. We have also created a mechanism to ensure that there is no shortage of essential medicines in future.
“We have also designed the package keeping in mind that in future, if children are affected, what kind of facilities are required to treat them.”
As part of the package, support will be provided to create paediatric units in all 736 districts, and augment 20,000 ICU beds in government hospitals, of which 20 per cent will be pediatric ICU beds.
The package will also provide financial support for creation of prefabricated structures for additional beds at existing community health centres, primary health centres (6-20-bed units). It will also provide support to create bigger field hospitals (50-100-bed units) depending on the needs in tier-II or tier-III cities and district headquarters, it was announced.
To augment oxygen availability, the package will provide support for installation of 1,050 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with the Medical Gas Pipeline System, which will support at least one such unit per district. Additionally, states can also use the fund to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate medical interns and final-year MBBS, BSc, & GNM nursing students for Covid-19 management.
Mandaviya said the package will focus on enhancing the IT infrastructure in pandemic response. The package will have three specific components in IT interventions; from the current 310 district hospitals, it will provide support for creation of Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) in all district hospitals to give a further push for implementation of the National Digital Health Mission; it will support the expansion of National Architecture of eSanjeevani Tele-consultation platform to provide up to 5 lakh teleconsultations per day; and strengthen the central war room at the Health Ministry.
The new package will support the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) by providing genome sequencing machines; support will also be provided to central medical institutions, including AIIMS, for re-purposing 6,688 beds for Covid-19 management.
While announcing the second package, Mandaviya said the first package has been used optimally by the states to augment their health infrastructure.