ESI multi-speciality hospital still a distant dream despite workers contributing Rs 85cr

Tirupur: Despite contributing more than Rs 85 crore to the Employee's State Insurance (ESI) as monthly premium, 1.7 lakh employees working in the knitwear industry here are still waiting for the 100-bed ESI multi-speciality hospital, which was announced 12 years ago.

With the land procured by the ESI Corporation to build the hospital mired in a legal tangle, trade unions want to execute the project in other available land or build a mini hospital in the dollar city.

Despite being one of the labour-oriented cities, Tirupur has only two ESI dispensaries to provide healthcare services to 1.7 lakh registered employees and their families. The employees have to either travel 45km to reach the ESI multi-speciality hospital at Uppilipalayam in Coimbatore or avail the services at six ESI-recognised private hospitals in Tirupur.

"Getting medical treatment under ESI at the six tie-up hospitals is not working at all. There is no cashless treatment provided at those hospitals. Since ESI has different packages for treating each disease or ailment, most of them would not match with that of those hospitals. So, the beneficiaries are forced to pay cash upfront and get reimbursement from the ESI," said CITU Tirupur general secretary G Sampath.

"Even after providing an average amount of 600 (apart from the same amount contributed from respective companies) to ESI every month, the employees are left with no other option but to spend money for their medical expenditure," said general secretary of the Tirupur Exporters Association TR Vijay Kumar.

The state government had mooted the 100-bed ESI multi-speciality hospital project in 2005. But, the ESI corporation procured 7.46 acres of lands at Chettipalayam at cost of 11.9 crore from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) board only in 2012. After that, more than five people have filed a civil suit before a trial court against the sale deed.

"As the current scenario has defeated ESI's purpose, we have submitted a petition to the Union labour ministry saying that it should amend the ESI Act by providing option to utilise services of private insurance companies if ESI hospital facility is not available in the city," Vijay Kumar said.