Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21

Even as the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) struggles with budgetary constraints and functional issues, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has accorded approval to enhance the land and plinth area for housing ECHS polyclincs by about three times of the existing norms.The move, which has serious financial implications, has been initiated to cater to the growing number of ECHS beneficiaries, especially in large cities, and also to improve the existing infrastructural environment and provide greater convenience to visitors.Depending on the footfall, ECHS has five types of polyclinics, categorised as A, B, C, D and E. The first four require a minimum dependency of 20,000, 10,000, 5,000 and 2,500, respectively, while E is a mobile polyclinic for area where the footfall is less than 2,500. The sanctioned number of polyclinics is 426, out of which 424 are operational.According to orders issued by the Adjutant General’s Branch in June, the built up area of A category has been increased from 5,000 to 14,440 square feet. For B and C categories, the area has been revised from 4,000 and 2,500 square feet, respectively, to 11,350 and 7,800 square feet, respectively. The area for D category has been hiked from 2,000 to 6,650 square feet.At present, the ECHS has a clientele of 52 lakh, including ex-servicemen and dependants, and this number is increasing consistently. Inadequate funding, shortage of medical staff, non-availability of medicines and unethical practices by some empanelled hospitals are among issues plaguing the scheme. Parliament’s standing committee on defence observed earlier this year that for long ECHS has not been getting adequate funds. For 2018-19, ECHS projected for Rs 4,686 crore under revenue head, but only Rs 3,226.76 crore has been provided.An internal MoD note pointed out that the “quantum jump” in area authorisation is estimated to cost Rs 200 crore for land alone, while the construction cost would be much more. The note suggests that in view of the financial constraints, expansion may be taken up on a case-to-case basis, depending on merit, urgency and actual load rather than across the board blanket approval for all polyclinics.

the rise in numbers

Types of Footfall  Past built-up Revised built-up polyclinics dependency area areaA 20,000 5,000 sq ft 14,440 sq ftB 10,000 4,000 sq ft 11,350 sq ftC 5,000 2,500 sq ft 7,800 sq ftD 2,500 2,000 sq ft 6,650 sq ft