Swasthya Sathi: Rs 3.2K cr spent so far, about 24.85L availed services

KOLKATA: The Budget allocation in the health sector in Bengal has gone up from Rs 3,584 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 17,576.90 crore in current fiscal clearly indicating the emphasis given by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to this sector.

After the Mamata Banerjee government came to power, the budgetary allocation in the health sector has increased manifold in the past couple of years with various health schemes seeing huge allocation.

According to the state government figure, around 24.85 lakh beneficiaries have availed the health services of the Swasthya Sathi scheme since its inception. The government has already spent Rs 3,212.72 crore for the scheme. More than 2.2 crore families have enrolled in the flagship scheme as on December 31 last year.State government has spent around Rs 1,913 crore for the prevention and management of Covid since the onset of the pandemic. According to the Budget statement, the state had spent Rs 760 crore for Covid purposes in 2021-22. The number of Covid beds which was 3,280 on April 1 in 2020 has gone up to 32,081 which is an increase by 870 per cent.

A host of health schemes have been implemented by the state which has already uplifted the socio-economic condition of the people mostly in the villages. Budget statement says that institutional delivery in the state has gone up to 98.2 per cent in 2020-21 from what stood at 68.1 per cent in 2011. Maternal mortality rate has come down to 98 per lakh in 2021 from 113 per lakh live birth in 2011. Infant mortality rate stands at 22 per 1000 live births from 34 in 2011 which is much below the national average. It may be mentioned here that the state government has designated five Medical College Hospitals as 'Centre of Excellence' for the management of pediatric Covid cases. Tele-medicine service which was launched in 2021 is operational in 2,300 Swasthya Sathi centers. State government has already signed a MoU with Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) Mumbai for setting up 'state of the art' cancer hubs at the IPGMER and SSKM Hospital and also in North Bengal

Medical College.