New Delhi: The Union Health Secretary has urged states and union territories to take necessary action to link Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) with various health portals, such as Reproductive Child Health (RCH), National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NIKSHAY), among others. As per the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) dashboard, total ABHA IDs created in the country as on April 3, 2024 is 5,894.60 lakhs, Health Secretary Apurva Chandra said.
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However, total beneficiaries linked with ABHA under Non-communicable diseases (NCD), Sickle cell, RCH, NIKSHAY, National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP) and Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) are only 827.99 lakhs, 0.89 lakhs, 15.78 lakhs, 2.46 lakhs, 0.056 lakhs and 0.17 lakhs, respectively, he said.
The health secretary said,
This shows that though the states have taken huge interest in creation of the IDs but non linking of health records with these IDs is not allowing the stakeholders, including the patients, from reaping the benefits of digital health records.
Mr Chandra in a letter to all the state and UT governments stated,
You are, therefore, requested to kindly take necessary action for linkage of existing beneficiaries with ABHA in the various portals and do regular review of the progress at your level. The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 27, 2021 and all the health facilities in the country are to take part in this mission.
Further, via Health Facility Registry and Health Professional Registry, the ABDM platform has to be utilised to the optimum extent, he said in the letter.
Mr Chandra said,
In this regard, all states and UTs have been requested in the past through a letter on June 13, 2023 for the 100 per cent compliance in ABHA seeding on various portals. Some states and UTs have shown impressive progress in the creation of ABHA IDs.
Mr Chandra said currently, beneficiaries are being linked with ABHA under various health portals like NCD, Sickle Cell, Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), NIKSHAY, NVHCP and PMNDP, etc.
Additionally, states and UTs have to link the beneficiaries under the IDSP-IHIP (Integrated Health Information Platform) portal, the health secretary said in the letter.
Under the ABDM, citizens can create their ABHA numbers, to which their digital health records can be linked. This will allow patients to hassle-free access and digitally share their health records.
This will enable creation of longitudinal health records for individuals across various healthcare providers, and improve clinical decision making by healthcare providers, officials said.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
