Data show how hospitalisations under Ayushman Bharat -PMJAY went drastically down in the weeks after abrogation of Article 370
Slapping of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and veteran leader Farooq Abdullah with the Public Safety Act has further deepened the divide over Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370.
Even as government continues to claim in the court and outside that the situation in the valley is normal, Medibulletin accessed patient data under Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) data pre and post August 5 when the decision on Article 370 was taken. The figures tell a story contrary to government claims of normalcy.
PMJAY usage data show a sharp decline in hospital admissions in the state after August 5 – in fact in the immediate aftermath, hospitalisations were down to one-tenth of the numbers before the abrogation. Jammu and Kashmir, before August 5, had been one of the better performing states in Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, the flagship health programme of the NDA government.
Hospitalisation rate per lakh population dipped from 57 before August 5 to just 6 in the there weeks after that.The valley hospitals which before the change in status had been among the best performing institutes under the programme saw zero admissions for days
In the week beginning June 24 there were 2050 hospital admissions, in the July 1 week there were another 1747. Between July 8 and 15 there were 1452 admissions, between then and July 12 there were 1688 admissions. The figure stood at 1619 in the July 22-29 week, which rose to 1743 in the week starting July 29. However in the next three weeks starting from August 5, the totals admissions stood at 179, 163 and 250 respectively.
Sources in the National health Authority say that since PMJAY is a completely online system, the programme suffered in the aftermath of the shutting down of internet services.
PMJAY was inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi on September 23 last year. Under the programme 10.74 crore families are eligible for a health cover of Rs 5 lakh each. A total of 1,133,694 beneficiary cards were issued in the state till August. That was 58% of the total number of possible beneficiaries in the state.
Hospitalisation rate per lakh population dipped from 57 before August 5 to just 6 in the there weeks after that.The valley hospitals which before the change in status had been among the best performing institutes under the programme saw zero admissions for days. These include the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Noora Hospital, Superspeciality Hospital, Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital and Khyber Medical Institute in Srinagar, Ibn Sina Hospital in Badgam, Mmabm Hospital Anantnag and the District Hospital Baramullah.