BHUBANESWAR: Odisha may not have accepted the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Jojana (AB-PMJAY), but the state has topped in generating Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts (ABHA).In 2018, the Centre had launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme with three components - AB-PMJAY, Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
While the Odisha government is implementing the AB-HWCs and ABDM components, it has launched its own health assurance scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) instead of PMJAY.The ABDM initiative aims at strengthening the accessibility and equity of health services, including continuum of care with citizens as the owner of data in a holistic healthcare programme approach leveraging IT and associated technologies.
As part of the initiative, states have been tasked to create health profiles of people, who will be assigned an ABHA id, with the help of which they can access their medical records anytime and anywhere in the country.
In response to the Centre’s target of 21.9 lakh ABHA ids creation, Odisha has created 43.61 lakh ids by using different portals of non communicable diseases, reproductive and child health, e-Sanjeevani and Nikshya since October 12.
The state is followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with six lakh and four lakh ids respectively. Among the top-10 districts selected by the Ministry of Health, all are from the state. The districts which are on the top-10 list included Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Ganjam, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Kendrapara, Balasore, Puri and Keonjhar.
Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department Shalini Pandit said Odisha has bagged the first prize for generating the highest number of ABHA ids during the campaign for universal health coverage this year.
NHM mission director Dr Brundha D and Public Health director Dr Niranjan Mishra received the award from Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on the occasion of Universal Health Coverage Day celebration at Varanasi on Friday.
ABHA is a unique health id for people to access medical records as it gives a complete digitised history of their health for a better understanding of treating doctors and other healthcare providers for appropriate and timely diagnosis and treatment across the country, Pandit said.