URGENT - ON CGHS
Dear CHQ Office Bearers / State General Secretaries / District & Divisional Secretaries of AIPRPA!
Comrades, As per the decision of the NCCPA National Executive Meeting held at Chennai on 5.8.2018, we have to submit a note on CGHS to facilitate the JCM National Council Staff Side Secretary Comrade Shiv Gopal Misra and the other Standing Committee member Comrade KKN.Kutty (both are the President and Secretary General of NCCPA also) to submit a note to the Health Secretary for a detailed dialouge on CGHS.
Accordingly we have to submit the note immediately. A draft prepared by the General Secretary based on the discussions in the Central Managing Committee of AIPRPA is placed here under for your study.
Kindly study the same and email to the General Secretary in the aiprpachq@gmail.com without delay for inclusion or addition or deletion etc in the draft:
CGHS Related issues for redressal with the Health Ministry
1. CGHS in all Revenue States:
As a matter of rule, all State
Capitals should contain a CGHS Centre. There are some States traditionally not having
a CGHS centre like the States of North Eastern Region. In addition due to
bifurcation of some existing States, a situation has developed wherein some
States do not have Additional Director offices and some State Capitals like the
Capital City of Andhra have no CGHS Wellness centres even. We propose that as a
matter of policy all State Capitals should have CGHS and all major States
Should have the office of the Additional Director CGHS. These creations are not
to be viewed with the parameters of expenditure involved but on policy.
2. Recognizing referral hospitals and Clinics in all Districts:
CGHS is now opened for all P&T
Pensioners living in non-CGHs areas also. P&T Pensioners are known to be
present and living in all districts of the country. We can understand that CGHS
wellness Centres cannot be opened in all Districts. But CGHs has a panel of
private referral hospitals and in some cities there is a big list of such
approved hospitals. Similar is the case with the Clinics and labs for
pathological tests for the beneficiaries. The condition is that these hospitals
and Clinics should agree to charge at the CGHS rates. We propose that at least
one referral hospital and one or two clinics in each district should be recognized or approved on the same
condition. If this is accepted as a policy then the Pensioners Associations can
approach different hospitals and Clinics in each district to ensure at least one renowned hospital and Clinic enter the list of empanelled
hospitals and Clinics. This will go a long way to help the Pensioners to take
treatment without straining themselves to undertake a long journey to reach out
the CGHS city for any treatment.
3.
Merger of
Postal Dispensaries with CGHS:
The 7th Pay Commission has
repeated the recommendation to merge the existing Postal Dispensaries with the
CGHS. Similar recommendation was made by the 6th CPC also. As a
follow up to the recommendation of 6th CPC and the efforts of
several organizations, the Government had merged certain number of Postal
Dispensaries with the CGHS. But the yardstick applied was that such merger will
be made only in those centres where already a CGHS Dispensary is functioning in
the same centre. This has caused many more Postal Dispensaries left out of the
merger with CGHS. The Postal Dispensaries cannot cater to the needs with equal
efficiency like that of the CGHS. Therefore repeatedly the Pensioners were
urging for merger of remaining Postal Dispensaries also. Fortunately the 7th
CPC recommended such a merger in order to strengthen the CGHS system. We learn
that the recommendation is under the consideration of the Government
departments. We propose that a favourable decision be expedited and all
remaining Postal Dispensaries be merged with CGHs so that these Postal
Dispensaries can function as CGHS Dispensary under the CGHS system more
efficiently. This will end the prevailing discrimination to the pensioners on
the issue of in-patient treatment in addition to the discrimination on payment
of subscription for out-patient treatment.
4. CGHS beneficiary rates commensurate to the year of retirement:
P&T Pensioners living in non-CGHS
areas were not allowed to join CGHS due to the prohibitory orders of the Health
Ministry and not due to the whimsicalities of the P&T Pensioners. Now after
the recommendations of the 7th CPC and due to Court intervention at
Kerala, the Health Ministry has taken back the prohibitory circulars. All the
P&T Pensioners are not permitted to join CGHS. But the question is they are
to remit the subscription at the rate finalised after 7th CPC. The
enhanced rate of subscription is understandable for the serving employees and
the pensioners retiring now after getting higher salaries of 7th
CPC. But fixing the same 7th CPC rates for the past Pensioners
especially those who had retired long back is a bit unjustified. We propose
that the past pensioners as a one-time measure may be permitted to join CGHS on
remittance of subscriptions at the rates prevailing on the month of their
retirement. Without such a gesture, many
past pensioners will be hesitating to join the CGHS as the remittance of
subscription is huge for most of them.
5. CGHS Contribution for Postal Pensioners of Andhra & Telangana:
A peculiar situation has arisen in
the State of Andhra and Telangana after the permission for the P&T
Pensioners to join CGHS has come about. By virtue of a Court order, the
non-CGHS area Pensioners of Postal Department were allowed to join CGHS by a
periodical remittance of subscription for six monthly term. Accordingly they
were remitting once in six months and getting the benefit of CGHS during
the past years. Actually many pensioners
have already remitted subscription for more than a period of 10 years. As per
rules of CGHs those who remit subscription for a period of 10 years are issued with a “Life
Card” to take treatment for the entire life time of the Pensioner and his/her
spouse. Now after the general permission granted to join CGHS for P&T
Pensioners, the remittance once again at the new rates are demanded to be
remitted by the Pensioners who have already remitted for more than 10 years.
This is totally unjust. We propose that the P&T Pensioners of both Andhra
and Telangana should be provided with the ‘Life Card’ in CGHs if they have
already remitted subscription through six month terms for ten year period.
Similarly those who have not remitted yet for 10 year period may be asked to
remit the balance in one lump sum as a one- time measure at the old rates for
issue of “Life Card”.
6. Reconsidering the norms of appointment of Specialists in major metro
cities:
The existing norms for appointment of
Specialists in major metro cities are totally inadequate to treat the number of
patients in CGHS. For example in Chennai City with more than 1,00,000 CGHS
beneficiaries, only one Eye Specialist Doctor is in place. This Specialist is
being rotated between two Centres at K.K.Nagar and Annanagar Wellness Centres
during the week. The number of eye patients are more in number and the rush and
the availability of Specialist only on selective days of the week is causing
extreme hardship to senior citizens especially octogenarians and
septuagenarians. This issue was taken up with the Additional Director CGHS at
Chennai City, which was turned down on the basis of existing norms. The issue
was represented by AIPRPA to the Director General of CGHS also. But till date
there is no progress. We propose that the norms should be liberalized if they
are not commensurate with the number of patients to be treated.
7. Medicines:
Currently in almost all CGHS centres
in different States, the patients are not supplied with all the required
medicines immediately after consulting the Doctors. Even routine medicines like
the tablets for Blood Pressure and Diabetis are not available on the first
visit of the patients. Local Purchase is ordered and the patients are asked to
come back again after three days for those medicines. This is causing
unnecessary travel strain on the aged patients besides the patients remain medicine
less for some days. If this is a condition in one city only, we can take up
locally with the Additional Director for redressal. But this condition is
prevalent in many States like Tamilnadu, Andhra and Telangana etc. Therefore we
propose that suitable arrangements as in the past should be made to stock
sufficient medicines for supply to the patients on their first visit to the
CGHS Dispensaries.
