PANJIM: Goa Government on Wednesday decided to bring COVID-19 treatment under the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY) – the universal cashless health insurance scheme, In a bid to ease the pressure on the State run medical facilities.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, addressing to the media, said that COVID-19 treatment will now be covered under the DDSSY, the move that will encourage the people to get them admitted and treated in the private hospitals.
“With rising number of COVID-19 cases, the pressure on government medical facilities is increasing day-by-day. We have been requesting the empanelled private hospitals to increase the ICU or general bed capacity for COVID patients,” Sawant said.
He said that with DDSSY cover, more and more people will opt for COVID treatment in private hospitals, thus reducing the burden on government facilities. “All those patients, who are undergoing COVID treatment in private hospitals, will be covered under DDSSY, under which the patient will get benefit up to 70-80 per cent on the treatment expenses,” Sawant explained.
The Chief Minister said that a notification to this effect will be issued by the government, capping the treatment price under the scheme.
Addressing further, Sawant raised serious concern over rising COVID-19 related mortalities and appealed citizen to strictly follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) laid down for home isolation. “As announced yesterday, we have already started providing the medicines free of cost to all those patients coming for testing, even before their results are out. I request citizen to follow the treatment protocol to reduce hospitalization,” he said.
He also said that from Thursday onwards, the results of RT-PCR test would be released within 24 hours of testing.
Chief Minister revealed that at present State has enough oxygen supply to meet the daily requirement. He added that an additional 20 metric tons of oxygen requirement proposal is placed before the Central government and same is likely to be released by today evening.
