Manipur CM announces door-to-door healthcare scheme

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 17 (EMN): After successful implementing Chief Minister-gi  Hakshelgi Tengbang (CMHT), a popular health assistance scheme in 2018, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Friday announced ‘Chief Minister’s Health for All’, a door-to-door healthcare service scheme in the state.

Biren Singh made the announcement while speaking at an event in Imphal market in connection with a cleanliness drive to mark the 71st birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

He also launched ‘Elderline’, a helpline for senior citizens with a toll-free number — 14567, where they may seek help if they are bothered or harassed by anybody. The senior citizens may also seek assistance regarding old-age pension, healthcare, Maintenance Act, legal assistance, mental health issues, homeless, etc. The helpline would remain active from 8 am to 8 pm daily.

Stating that the objective of the ‘Chief Minister’s Health for All’ scheme is to conduct health check-ups for all the citizens at their doorsteps, he said the primary focus would be early identification and diagnosis of 10 non-communicable disease (NCD) diseases.

Informing that the broad components are detection, treatment and follow-up, he said the beneficiaries would be given medicines at their doorsteps and added that the scheme would especially benefit elderly patients above 60 years, bed-ridden patients and NCD patients, who are not on regular follow-up or who have not visited health centre due to financial or physical problems.

An official of the Health department said that the scheme is scheduled to roll out from next month. In the first phase, 1118 villages which are linked to 154 government healthcare centres including 118  Public Health Sub-Centres  and 29 Public Health Centres will be selected comprising all 16 districts of the state.

It may be noted that since its introduction in 2018 till August end this year, around 4.19 lakh beneficiaries had been enrolled under CMHT–the state’s popular healthcare scheme.

Under CMHT, the eligible households are given a health card to avail cashless treatment as it provides medical cover up to INR 2 lakh per family per year for seven critical diseases and up to INR 50,000 for primary and secondary ailments.