NEW DELHI: The average daily hospitalization under the Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, has dropped by over 70 per cent during the COVID-19 lockdown -- even registering a decline of more than 90 per cent on some days.
The eye-popping figures reflect the massive disruptions in crucial non-COVID healthcare services faced by the majority of citizens since the nationwide lockdown was imposed starting March 25.
The numbers highlighting a dramatic drop in hospital admissions under the PMJAY, which offers cashless hospitalization benefit of up to Rs 5 lakh to crores, are even more worrisome as the beneficiaries of the scheme include the most marginalized and vulnerable sections.
National Health Authority data suggests that while the average daily hospitalization under the programme, launched in September 2018, was 30,000-32,000 before the lockdown, it has come down to 5,000-6,000 on an average during the epidemic period.
And on some days, it has been even worse. On May 4 for instance, there were less than 2,500 hospital admissions under the scheme.
Officials however assured that while there has been a significant drop in overall admissions that could be seen as "elective procedures", the decline in critical care services such as dialysis, chemotherapy and child birth has been comparatively less at about 20-25 per cent.
“There are three factors that have led to these drops -- impact of the lockdown, fear among patients because of which they are not accessing services and some empanelled hospitals getting converted into COVID hospitals,” Indu Bhushan, CEO of the NHA, told The New Indian Express.
Data shared by the agency showed that while the admissions under the critical care specialties were nearly 2 lakh in January this year, the figure was less than 1.6 lakh between March 24 and April 24 and may have gone down further.
Asked whether all admissions are largely happening only in government hospitals, the agency maintained that the trend has not changed much after the lockdown.
Figures indicate that 56 per cent of over 21,000 empanelled hospitals are in the public sector while 51 per cent of the total treatment is being provided by private empanelled hospitals.
“This trend has remained almost the same before and after the lockdown,” said the NHA in response to a query by Express.
Public health specialists meanwhile expressed deep concern over the disruption in services saying that the government may have faltered in ensuring smooth healthcare to millions in need.
“The saddest part is the scheme is meant for the poorest people, thousands of whom would be quietly suffering or dying without accessing tertiary and secondary care hospitalization,” said community medicine expert Dr P K Tyagi. "We will not even know about those numbers because a large number of deaths in the country are not recorded."
Details shared by the NHA earlier showed that palliative chemotherapy -- treatment for hip fracture and angioplasty are the top packages availed under the scheme. So the disruptions now indicate that most of the intended beneficiaries are deprived of some of these procedures.