Chandigarh, Sep 13: Taking a significant leap forward towards providing quality and affordable health care services, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh Today virtually dedicated projects worth Rs 125 crore, including the statewide radio diagnostic and laboratory services and the revamped 108 Ambulance Emergency Response System to the people of the state.

Launching the ambitious projects from Batala and Mohali on the auspicious occasion of the 534th Marriage Anniversary (Vhyah Purb) of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Capt Amarinder also dedicated the first of its kind ‘CM E-Clinic facility’ pilot at Batala to effectively address the shortage of specialist medical counseling and treatment in rural areas.

There can be no better day than the Babe-Da-Vyah Utsav which is being celebrated today, for the launch of these facilities, Capt Amarinder said while extending his greetings to the people of Punjab on the pious occasion. The highly specialized medical services to be rolled out across the state by the end of November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor for whom expert private-sector medical care is mostly out of reach, he said.

For this project, he said, Punjab has been divided into six parts in which one MRI each and 25 CT Scan facilities for every district hospital at a cost of Rs 80 crore besides one Reference Lab, 30 district laboratories, and 95 collection centers will be covering 23 state districts at a cost of Rs 25 crore to ensure round the clock medical services to our people will be provided.

He said that five percent of total cases will be provided free diagnostic facilities to provide help to the needy and poor. The projects entail an employment generation potential for 750 people who would be trained as technicians.

Underscoring the enhanced need to provide hi-tech diagnostic services in the background of the COVID onslaught, the Chief Minister said that the decision to upgrade and enhance the medical delivery system was necessitated which would bring down the cost of medical testing by a whopping 65 to 70 percent for the beneficiaries.

The innovative E-Clinic facility set up at Batala would greatly leverage the concept of teleconsultation with medical specialists of patients in rural areas, he said adding that the success of this pilot project would be replicated across the state in the near future.

The projects will be launched by the state government on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in collaboration with Krsnaa Diagnostics Limited. (UNI)