PANAJI
Goa's economic survey 2024-25 has painted a rosy picture of Goa's health sector saying robust infrastructure and the 'highly educated' profile of the resident population has helped.
Among some of the government's public health initiatives and schemes cited for elaboration in the survey included the Goa Mediclaim Scheme, which provides financial support for super-speciality healthcare ordinarily not available in the State.
Under the scheme, the maximum amount beneficiary patients are eligible for in re-imbursement of medical costs was recently enhanced from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and the upper limit for annual family income to be eligible was also increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh.
In 2024-25 from April to January, 241 beneficiaries availed the scheme, with the government incurring a Rs 1.94 crore spend on it, the economic survey said.
Another medical insurance scheme the survey cited was the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY), noting that the scheme covered a total of 1.83 lakh families.
In 2019-20, 8,583 claimed benefit under DDSSY with the government's financial burden amounting to Rs 36.57 crore. Rs 43.44 crore was spent on providing DDSSY benefit to 17,983 claimants in 2020-21 while Rs 53.31 crore was spent on the scheme in 2021-22.
In 2022-23 and 2023-24, the government spent Rs 40.56 crore and Rs 73.64 crore on paying out DDSSY benefits while in the current year (2024-25) until January this year, Rs 32.85 was spent, the economic survey said.
The survey also picked to highlight that digital registration is operational for all OPD services operational at both the District Hospitals, Sub District Hospital at Ponda, Ayushman Aarogya Mandir (AAM) Corlim, Community Health Centre (CHC) Sankhalim, CHC Valpoi, Primary Health Centre (PHC) Chinchinim and PHC Navelim.
The survey said, Goa is only the third State in India to start with the National Health Authority “100 Microsites Project” with the aim to onboard the private healthcare providers on the Ayushman Bharat platform and was awarded the “Best Rural Healthcare Project” at THIT (Transforming Healthcare with IT) Awards 2024 for showcasing innovative projects that have a lasting impact on the healthcare services at the grassroot level.
The survey also noted that Goa is the first State in the country to provide rapid molecular test as the first diagnostic TB test for early diagnosis and Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (MDRTB) in 2 hours in entire State through 19 NAAT machines since 2020.
On the vector-borne diseases front, where Goa has been struggling to cope with the onslaught of dengue, the economic survey noted that focal cases of dengue and chikungunya are being reported all over Goa.
It also noted that sustained source reduction measures adopted by DHS in collaboration with local bodies is showing that the dengue cases are now coming under control.
The survey said that Goa had 726 cases if dengue in 2019, 376 in 2020, 649 in 2021, 443 in 2022, 512 in 2023 and 567 in 2024, showing a consistent trend of cases rising each year.
