The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is planning to upgrade its dispensaries into six-bed hospitals in a phased manner. Addressing the media here on Monday, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said that 500 dispensaries would be upgraded in the first phase. “ESIC has already upgraded 150 hospitals into 100-bed hospitals and facilities like appointment of doctors, minor operations, X-Rays and scanning facilities will be provided,” he said.

The ESIC was planning to extend its health services to 20 crore workers in the organised as well as unorganised sectors within four years. At present, the corporation is providing health services to eight crore workers in the organised sector. A 700-bed superspeciality hospital at Sanathnagar would be constructed. Building construction workers, beedi workers, auto drivers/rickshaw pullers, Aasha workers, Anganwadi workers, mid-day meal workers would be provided with health services under social security scheme, the Minister said.

“The ESIC is running medical colleges in Faridabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Gulbarga and Hyderabad. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between the governments of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar and ESIC for establishing medical colleges in the States. Services like tele-medicine, e-learning and digital library facilities would be provided in the medical colleges, the Minister said.

Dattatreya requested Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to allot government land for the 59 dispensaries, which were being run in private buildings. He also requested the Chief Minister to allot land in Goshamahal and Old City to construct 100-bed hospitals.

Dattattreya said the annual ‘Alai-Balai’ programme would be organised at Exhibition Grounds on Wednesday. Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Anantha Kumar, Sujana Chowdhary, Nirmala Sitaraman, Members of Parliament and leaders of all political parties, artists, advocates and doctors would attend the programme, he said.