Admissions to Ayushman Bharat critical care see sharp drop due to COVID-19 pandemic: Report

The coronavirus pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown enforced across the country due to it, has negatively impacted people's access to medical care, including the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana's (AB-PMJAY) catering to the patients who are below the poverty line.

According to a report by The Indian Express, there has been a 20 percent drop between February and April in the number of treatments for 825 types of critical non-COVID procedures. Cancer-related procedures saw a drop of over 57 percent while cardiology by 76 percent. The report states that procedures in obstetrics and gynaecology were down by 26 percent.

Follow our LIVE Updates here.

An 80 percent drop was reported in procedures by both government and private hospitals in respiratory symptoms, which are identified with COVID-like symptoms, according to the report.

This assumes importance considering that the easing of the lockdown, extended till May 17, might spike the number of infections and burden the healthcare system.

"While our total daily treatments have gone down by more than 50 percent, essential treatments like dialysis and chemotherapy have only gone down by 10-20 percent," Indu Bhushan, CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA) and AB-PMJAY said.

Also Read | Need to open aviation sector in calibrated manner: Hardeep Singh Puri

"This is some consolation, but we were actually expecting them to increase because many of the government facilities are not providing them at the moment. The private hospitals empanelled with us should have been able to take over," Bhushan said.

The CEO of a Bihar-based private hospital attributed this drop to fear.