Pathalam ESI Hospital to get super-specialty status.

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said recently that the ESI Hospital at Pathalam, near Kochi, would be raised to the status of a super-specialty hospital, and that 100 more beds would be added to make it a 200-bed facility.

The Minister was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the intensive care unit for children at the hospital.

Mr. Dattatreya said that improving the facilities at the ESI Hospital was part of efforts by the Centre to put in place a development process that embraced all. He added that even labourers in the construction sector would soon be given a status as in the organised sector to enable them to enjoy benefits like provident fund and health cover through ESIC hospitals.

“ESI hospitals are also providing Ayurvedic, Homoeopathic, and Unani medical care, though the process of appointment of new doctors would take some time,” the Minister said in reply to a question on the Centre’s Ayush programme.

“Even after high-value currency notes were demonetised, enrolment of workers at ESI facilities had continued,” he added.

E-governance and legislative reforms like the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) are the steps taken to ensure that everyone came under the development net, Mr. Dattatreya said. “Longer maternity leave, higher bonus, and higher minimum wages were among the steps taken by the government to ensure that everyone was part of the development process,” he added.

He said the BJP, aiming at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, would try and reach the benefits of the present government to the lowest rungs of society, so that everyone knew what the government was doing for them. The Minister also inaugurated a meeting of the State unit of the BJP in Kochi on Monday, besides addressing BMS members in the city.

THE HINDU