New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS): Even before the swearing-in of the new BJP government in Delhi, the party’s legislator and former Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijender Gupta on Thursday wrote to Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena seeking early implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission and using Rs 2,406 crore under the scheme to improve the city’s health services.

In a letter addressed to Saxena, the newly-elected legislator from Rohini said that PM–ABHIM along with the Health Information Management System would go a long way in improving the public health care system.

“The PM-ABHIM is being implemented in all states/UTs across the country except NCT of Delhi. Implementation of such an important initiative in Delhi will not only boost the public health care system but also give impetus to the held-up health infrastructure projects facing huge resources crunch,” he said.

He wrote that PM-ABHIM was launched in 2021 by the Central government with the objective of filling critical gaps in health infrastructure, surveillance and health research - spanning both rural and urban areas.

Gupta said that under the Mission, the Central government has approved a resource envelope of Rs 2,406 crore for NCT of Delhi and it includes three major components - Urban Health and Wellness Centres, District Integrated Public Health Labs and Critical Care Blocks.

Advocating an early introduction of the Health Information Management System in Delhi, Gupta wrote, “In the time of digital world, digital health solutions are vital to ensure that health care services are provided equitably, transparently and efficiently.”

With this vision of digitising the healthcare process, ensuring better tracking of patient records, streamlining hospital management, preventing pilferage of public funds and enhancing overall health infrastructure, the implementation of the Health Information Management System (HIMS) in hospitals has been stressed upon by the Central government, he said.

“However, due to reasons best known to the previous AAP government, the digital system could not be rolled out in Delhi till date. In this regard, NIC application ‘e-Hospital/Next Gen Hospital’ is available for this purpose and successfully being used at Hospitals like Dr. RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and approximately 738 Hospitals across the country,” he wrote.