The sudden decision of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) authorities to ban the secondary care referral of the insured persons to other hospitals has shocked and irked the insured persons dependent on ESIC.
With thousands of industrial workers getting affected with this sudden withdrawal of secondary care referral, trade union, CITU State secretary in a statement here threatened for a mass agitation demanding immediate lifting of the ban.
Sources said ESIC, a Government of India body, takes care of the health issues, mainly of the private sector employees. Accordingly, ESIC runs dispensary, model hospitals and the insured persons and their family were earlier being referred to by ESIC Model Hospital, Rourkela, for secondary care treatment and in some cases, when super speciality treatment was required, patients under ESIC, were being referred to super speciality hospitals for their treatment.
The secondary care referred was stopped by ESIC from February 1. Significantly, the employee’s contribution rate (from July 1, 2019) is 0.75 percent of the wages and that of employer is 3.25 per cent of the wages but before that, the employee’s contribution rate was 1.75 per cent and employer’s contribution was 4.75 per cent.
Although there has been a ESIC model hospital at Rourkela, the hospital doesn’t not have facilities like ultrasound, ECG and other essential facilities, for which it refers the patients to other tie-up hospitals of the city.
The patients were getting treatment there without making any payment, as a secondary care measure but after the secondary care referral facility has been stopped by ESIC, the insured persons, particularly workers with meager salary, are left in the lurch.
“It is really painful to know that secondary care referral has been stopped by ESIC. ESIC Model Hospital at Rourkela does not have required facilities for patients and now a worker with very small salary like me, have to run to local hospitals and testing centres that I can ill afford to,” said B Majhi, a worker of an industry.
Deputy Superintendent, ESIC Model Hospital, Rourkela, Jayanti Behera said, “We have informed the difficulty faced by the patients to our higher authority.”
CITU State general secretary BC Mohanty warned of a mass agitation unless the decision was rolled back.
