New Delhi/Agartala, July 10 (IANS) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday said that around 80 per cent of the state’s population has been covered under the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), highlighting the significant progress made in implementing the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), one of the Centre’s flagship digital healthcare initiatives.

The Chief Minister made the remarks while participating in the 3rd Mission Steering Group Meeting of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda.

The Chief Minister said that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is a landmark initiative of the Central Government aimed at providing every citizen with a unique digital health identity and integrating healthcare services on a secure, interoperable digital platform.

Saha said under the mission, ABHA accounts have already been created for nearly 80 per cent of the population in Tripura. Besides this, work on the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and the Health Professional Registry (HPR) has been completed at 100 per cent in the state.

Saha, who also holds the Health and Family Welfare Minister portfolio, said that around 18 lakh digital tokens have so far been issued to patients in 31 government hospitals through the ‘Scan and Share’ facility, significantly reducing waiting time and ensuring faster access to healthcare services.

He said various patient services are now being provided digitally at Agartala Government Medical College’s Indira Gandhi Memorial (IGM) Hospital, which has been developed as a model hospital under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

The Chief Minister also informed the meeting that West Tripura district has been selected as a model district under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to implement various digital health initiatives.

Saha said a door-to-door awareness campaign has been launched across the state to ensure that 100 per cent of the citizens are covered under the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA).

Highlighting the next phase of digital healthcare reforms, the Chief Minister said all government and private hospitals covered under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and the Chief Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (CM-JAY) have been instructed to implement the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Integrated Hospital Management Information System (HMIS).

He said the state government has also initiated measures to integrate the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) with various government health portals to facilitate seamless exchange of patients’ health records and medical information across healthcare institutions.

Saha said the National Health Claim Exchange will soon be introduced in all government hospitals covered under PM-JAY and CM-JAY. Once implemented, it will enable faster, paperless and hassle-free processing of health insurance claims, making healthcare delivery more efficient and patient-friendly.

The virtual meeting was also attended by Minister of State, AYUSH (IC) and Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Electronics and Information Technology M Srinivas, Member (Health), NITI Aayog Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India Mukesh Mahaling. The Health Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, as well as other members of the Mission Steering Group, also attended the meeting.

–IANS

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