Union minister of labour and employment Bhupender Yadav on Saturday said that Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has planned to fill 6,400 vacancies, including posts for more than 2,000 doctors and teaching faculty, to wipe out the manpower backlog.

ESIC is also working towards providing skills- based training programme to the workers for paramedical jobs and has launched certificate courses in 10 disciplines.

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Delivering the graduation day keynote address at the ESIC Medical College and Hospital in Chennai, the Union minister said that as part of the Centre’s objective of the modernisation of facilities under the ‘Nirman Se Shakti’ initiative, it is setting up 23 new 100 bedded hospitals across the country.

The minister said: “We are also setting up over 60 dispensaries that will ensure the delivery of quality medical care service to insured workers and their dependents in the vicinity of their residences. The Union government is ensuring that our services are available to a wider population. We are focused towards creating an infrastructure for easy access to medical services for our country’s workers, and ESIC itself has had a huge role to play in it.”

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He said the Centre is working towards pan India coverage under ESIC and is constantly creating more infrastructure and capacities. It has introduced a cath lab at ESIC hospitals in three cities in India.

As part of promoting preventative healthcare practices amongst the masses, the ESIC department has launched medical health checkups for 15 industrial clusters- this communicates a significant shift in approach”, he said, adding that it is not the workers that visit the hospitals, but ESIC is now reaching out to the workers at their work places.

“Antoydaya remains the defining principle of all our actions, and continuing PM’s vision of ‘Swastha Se Samridhhi’ we are committed to achieving health for all, leaving no one behind. We live in the age of technology, innovations and information.

“But as we continue to adapt and evolve into the new, we must also remain firmly grounded in our roots,” he added.