CM Bhajan Lal Sharma said that the intention of the State Government is to ensure that every village of the State gets access to quality health services and every citizen of the State remains healthy. With this intention, the state government had earmarked 8.26 per cent of the total budget for the health sector in its first budget itself. He said that in order to strengthen the medical infrastructure in the state, budget announcements like upgradation of medical centres and starting of new hospitals have been made. In the implementation of these announcements, select places on the basis of greater need, so that more and more people get the benefit of medical facilities. He directed that the construction related works included in the budget announcements should be regularly monitored and reports should be submitted by fixing the time limit for completion.
CM Bhajan Sharma was chairing a review meeting on the implementation of pending budgetary announcements of the State Budget 2024-25 and 2025-26 related to the Medical and Health Department and Medical Education Department at the Chief Minister’s Office here on Sunday. He said that along with strengthening the resolve of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for a healthy and prosperous India, the State Government is working diligently to make Rajasthan a leader in the field of health in the country. With our efforts in this direction, Rajasthan ranks second in the country by generating Abha IDs of more than 6 crore 20 lakh citizens. Also, in compliance with the budget announcement, more than 1 crore 68 lakh Abha Linked E-Health Records have also been created by organizing health camps in the state.
RUHS being developed as RIMS-
CM Bhajan said that to give new heights to super specialty medicine in the state, Rajasthan Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) is being established on the lines of AIIMS, Delhi by upgrading Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS). An amount of Rs 750 crore will be spent on this in a phased manner. He directed the officials to ensure its completion in a time-bound manner by bringing more speed to the ongoing works related to its designing and planning.
Restrictions on misuse of RGHS
CM Bhajan said that making the RGHS scheme more accessible to the state government employees and pensioners, it has been handed over to the Medical and Health Department. He directed the departments to ensure complete transparency and accountability in this scheme and strict action should be taken against those misusing it. Sharma also said that strict action should be taken against the institutions involved in this act. Techniques like Artificial Intelligence and Fraud Deduction Software should be used to identify the misuse of the scheme.
Start home delivery of medicines to the elderly as a pilot project.
CM Bhajan Sharma said that in order to reduce the burden of patients on big hospitals like Sawai Man Singh Hospital, the hospitals located in the capital as well as other government hospitals across the state should be further strengthened and expanded. He said that the budget announcement of providing free medicines to the elderly above 70 years of age at home as per requirement should be implemented across the state in a phased manner starting as a pilot project in one district for smooth implementation.
Continuous recruitments in the medical field –
CM Bhajan said that in order to strengthen the health services, along with the development of infrastructure, continuous recruitment is being done on vacant posts in the medical and health department. Recently, appointment has been provided to 1699 posts of Medical Officers. He directed that complete details of the posts falling vacant in the future should also be prepared so that the vacancies could be filled soon after the retirement of the personnel. Reviewing the repair and maintenance work of the district hospital, sub-district hospital and other health centres, the Chief Minister said that special care should be taken of their quality and availability of adequate medicines and other facilities should be ensured in CHCs and PHCs.
Medical and Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khinwsar, Chief Secretary Sudhanshu Pant, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Vikas Kharge and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Vikas Kharge attended the meeting.