Poster girl of Centre’s flagship scheme had to wait for proper medical aid

KARNAL: When eight-month-old Karishma, the poster girl of Ayushman Bharat Scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, fell sick and lost 2 kg within a few days, her parents never imagined that they will have wander for 15 days to get proper treatment for her.
Karishma, whose mother Mousami (27) of Ghisarpuri village in Indri block of Karnal district was the first beneficiary of the Centre’s flagship programme — Ayushman Bharat Scheme, had been down with fever and chest infection for the past 15 days.
Her father Amit alleged that 15 days ago, they went to a private hospital, from where they were referred to Kalpana Chawla Medical College and Hospital, where Karishma was born on August 17, 2018.
And every time they visited the hospital, Karishma was just prescribed medicines. Amit, a labourer, said during the initial visits to the hospital, the doctors did not even order blood test to find out the reason for the fever. The parents felt helpless as Karishma kept losing weight.
Frustrated over the poor treatment, Amit took Karishma to the civil hospital in Indri on Friday.
Dr Ramesh, chief medical officer, Karnal, said Karishma was admitted to the civil hospital Indri. “We have taken blood sample and detected chest infection. A dedicated team led by SMO Deepak Gupta has been deployed for Karishma’s treatment. Now she is doing fine,” he added.
Amit said even though the scheme was launched by the Prime Minister, it’s implementation is still not up to the mark.
The ambitious scheme offers an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh. The government had claimed that the scheme will cover 10 crore poor families or almost 50 crore persons.