GUWAHATI, May 21 � Sanjeevani 104 Village Health Outreach Service is almost on the verge of closure allegedly due to the inability of the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, and the State Health Department to reimburse operating expenses of around Rs five crore incurred by the implementing partner of the service, said knowledgeable sources here.
Sanjeevani was launched in the State in February 2011, but the NHM and the State Health Department have not been able to reimburse the expenses incurred for implementing the service by the implementing partner Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute (PSMRI), since October 2014 till date.
The primary focus of Sanjeevani is on early identification, detection, diagnosis, confirmation and treatment of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, defective vision, epilepsy, asthma, tuberculosis and malaria. The Sanjeevani Service has a fleet of 80 mobile medical vans and it covers 3,744 villages and caters to a population of 62 lakh in the State.
Since its inception, this service has so far served 33.73 lakh people who visited its facilities. It has so far screened a total of 7.5 lakh beneficiaries for the chronic diseases and of them, 1.77 lakh have been diagnosed to be confirmed chronic disease patients. Their disease management and treatment is being completely managed by the Sanjeevani Service.
It is learnt from the knowledgeable sources that the PSMRI has incurred expenses to the tune of Rs 7.19 crore in 2014-15 as overhead expenses of the service, which included expenses on fuel, maintenance, medicines, supplies and staff salary. The NHM, Assam has reimbursed only Rs three crore to the PSMRI, sources said.
The remaining non-reimbursed amounts of Rs 4.19 crore for the 2014-15 fiscal and Rs 67 lakh for April 2015, have led to severe resource crunch for the PSMRI. It is feared that if the service is closed it would affect over 60 lakh people in the rural areas of the State, sources said.
