Saturday 18 July 2020

CHQ WRITES TO NCCPA & STAFF SIDE SECRETARY JCM ON CGHS & MEDICAL RELATED ISSUES



All India Postal & RMS Pensioners Association

 

(Registered No: 83/2015 under Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act, 1975)

Chennai HQ: 2/44, Muthial Chetty Street, Purasawalkam, Chennai - 600007

New Delhi HQ: First Floor, North Avenue Post Office Building, North Avenue, New Delhi - 110001


AIPRPA /CGHS / Medical /2020                                                               Dated 18.07.2020

To

1.      Comrade Shiva Gopal Mishra

President NCCPA & JCM Staff Side Secretary

New Delhi 110001

 

2.      Comrade KKN Kutty

Secretary General NCCPA & JCM Standing Committee Member

New Delhi

 

Dear Comrades!

 

Sub: CGHS/Medical related urgent issues – regarding.

 

Kindly recall the discussions we had in the NCCPA Executive video conference on 16.07.2020 and to the minutes of the Health Secretary’s meeting with the JCM National Council Staff Side leaders on 09.07.2020.

 

We appreciate the initiative taken by the Staff Side JCM to discuss important issues related to CGHS with the Health Secretary. Some orders have been issued recently with regard to treatment by the CGHS beneficiaries for covid 19 as well as for purchase of medicines for general diseases in shops by the beneficiaries for reimbursement etc. However, there are some important issues that need to be addressed with the Health Secretary related to covid-19 and general treatment especially for pensioners.

 

1.      The P&T Pensioners living in non-CGHS areas also are now permitted to join CGHS since December, 2018. But they have to travel to CGHS cities for any treatment because there are no empanelled hospitals and diagnostic centres in those non-CGHS centres. A policy decision has to be taken for allowing at least one empanelled renowned hospital and a diagnostic centre in all districts of the country to cater to the medical needs of pensioners living in those non-CGHS centres on a cashless basis.

 

2.      The CGHS administration should employ specialists once in two weeks such as Cardiologist, Urologist,Nephrologist, Opthalmologist , Paediatrician, Gynaecologist etc in all CGHS Centres. Presently there is no such system in many Postal Dispensaries converted into CGHS Centres. Further the CGHS beneficiaries may be allowed to get the consultations from the consulting rooms of the Government specialists instead of government hospitals which are mostly crowded and available only on specific days of the week in hospitals.

 

3.      Some CGHS Centres don’t have any empanelled hospitals. As a temporary measure the CGHS Pensioners shall be allowed to get the treatment from other than empanelled hospitals at the CGHS rates and claim reimbursement. The CGHS beneficiaries may be permitted to approach the CSMA hospitals and claim reimbursement at the CGHS approved rates. However efforts should be on for empanelling reputed hospitals in those centres to permanently alleviate the problem. Similarly there are Centres which were earlier P&T Dispensaries but now amalgamated into CGHS without any referral hospitals or diagnostic centres. Until empanelment is done, the CGHS beneficiaries shall be allowed to take treatment in any other CSMA hospitals and claim reimbursement.

 

4.      In some CGHS Centres (e.g., Ranchi in Jharkhand) there are no empanelled hospitals approved for covid 19 treatment by the State Government. Therefore it is necessary to permit the CGHS beneficiaries to approach those private hospitals approved by the State Government for covid 19 treatment even though they are not the empanelled hospitals for covid 19 treatments.

 

5.      The Medical reimbursement should be effected to the beneficiaries within 30 days on submission of bills as per the direction of Supreme Court judgment and penal interest shall be sanctioned in case of non-adherence of the above direction.

 

6.      There is no Gynecologist Doctor in many CGHS wellness centres causing women pensioners face trouble with their treatment. (e.g. Indore and Guwahati CGHS Centre)

 

7.      Recently 33 Postal Dispensaries were amalgamated with CGHS as per the recommendations of the 7th CPC. But unfortunately these converted CGHS dispensaries are not augmented with necessary Doctors and Para medical staff despite lapse of many months since amalgamation. We request that till making regular appointments unemployed persons should be appointed as casual staff.

 

8.      The Central Cabinet Minister Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar had inaugurated with all fanfare a CGHS centre in the city of Gwalior. But unfortunately no follow up had been taken and whatever little arrangement was made for the Minister’s function are totally removed. Similarly there were expectations on the basis of the move of the Government that in many important centres like Panchkula, Mohali, Gwalior, Kannur, Kozhikode, Nasik, Aurangabad, Ichhapur, Ludhiana, Rohtak, Wadi, Mysuru,  Mandi, Haldwani, Madurai, Coimbatore, Warrangal, Katni, Chandrapur and Leh that CGHS wellness centres will be opened.

 

The hopes of employees and pensioners were hiked because of collecting figures etc from these centres by the CGHS authorities. But we do not know of the progress in this direction. We desire that the efforts be expedited to open CGHS centres early in all these centres.

 

9.      At present except Guwahati (Assam) none of the remaining six North Eastern States have any referral hospitals in the entire revenue states. This is causing innumerable strain as any treatment involves very long travel to Guwahati from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in the godforsaken terrain of the entire area. Therefore at least one referral hospital and diagnostic centre shall be authorised in each headquarter of the revenue state in North East.

 

10.  Ayurveda, Homeopathy like alternative treatment are to be generally encouraged under CGHS. Recently there were some efforts to open up these wings in addition to dental wing in centres like Indore. But unfortunately the progress is very sluggish. We desire that speedy action is taken in this direction to open up these alternative wings under CGHS.

 

11.  In most centres only one centre of Ayush Centre is available which is not possible to reach under lock down conditions. Hence the immunity boosting  Sidha  and Homepathy medicines like Kabasura Kudineer, Nilvembu Kudineer (Siddha) and Arsenicum Album 30 (Homeopathy) formulations to all the CGHS Wellness Centres for the benefit of the beneficiaries.

 

12.  As a matter of policy it should be decided that the Additional Director CGHS office shall be situated in the respective states only. For example the newly formed state of Andhra, there is no Additional Director CGHS office in that state and the office in Telangana state is looking after. The Additional Director office in Kanpur in Uttarpradesh State is looking after the CGHS Centre in Gwalior of Madhyapradesh State. It is not out of place to mention that Kanpur is not in direct line with Gwalior and that the travel involves many difficulties. We desire that as a matter of policy the Additional Director office shall be in the particular state only.

 

We wish the JCM Staff Side and the NCCPA shall take up these issues also for remedial measures at the hands of the Government and the Health Ministry. The Government shall be reminded that while the serving employees are covered with insurance for deaths out of covid 19, the senior citizen pensioners shall at least be provided with adequate medical facilities in this pandemic time.

 

Thanking you,

Fraternally Yours,

Sd/-

(K.Ragavendran)

General Secretary AIPRPA


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