Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the launched PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.

Days after India achieved the landmark of administering over 100 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses, PM Modi said that the Centre's 'Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine' nationwide campaign is going ahead successfully.

"In its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation has achieved a major milestone of administering 100 crore vaccine doses. With the blessings of Baba Vishwanath, Ma Ganga and the trust of the people of Kashi, the campaign of 'Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine' is going ahead successfully," said PM Modi while addressing at the launch of PM Ayushman Bharat Health

Infrastructure Mission in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh today.

The Prime Minister further slammed the previous governments in the Centre and said that the health infrastructure of the nation was not given attention for a long period of time after independence.

The Prime Minister said, "For a long time after independence, not much attention was paid to health and healthcare facilities. People who governed the nation for years never bothered to invest in healthcare infrastructure."

"Villages either didn't have hospitals or no doctors in hospitals. Block hospitals didn't have testing facilities, if test reports came in, there was doubt on its results. Dist level hospitals led to surgery for serious diseases but the hospitals didn't have surgery facility," he added.

The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission is one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. It is in addition to the National Health Mission.

Its objective is to fill gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas. It will provide support for 17,788 rural health and wellness centres in 10 high focus states. Further, 11,024 urban health and wellness centres will be established in all the states.

Through this, critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than five lakh population through exclusive critical care hospital blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services.

People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the public healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country, and integrated public health labs will be set up in all the districts.

Under the scheme, a national institution for one health, four new national institutes for virology, a regional research platform for WHO South East Asia Region, nine biosafety level-III laboratories, five new regional national centre for disease control will be set up.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister inaugurated nine medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh virtually from Siddharthnagar.

Built at a cost of Rs 2,329 crore, the medical colleges inaugurated on Monday are located in Siddharthnagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Jaunpur districts.

While eight medical colleges have been sanctioned under a Centrally sponsored scheme for establishment of new medical colleges attached with district or referral hospitals, the one in Jaunpur has been made functional by the state government through its own resources.

(With inputs from ANI)

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