"There are about 700 hospitals empanelled in Ayushmaan in Punjab, they have been working smoothly for last 3 years but after August last year when SBI general insurance joined as insurance company for the scheme everything started going in wrong direction. Hospitals have not received their payments after December even after several meetings of IMA official with health minister, health secretary and SHA officials", rued Dr.Paramjit Maan, state IMA president while talking with Babushahi here today.

"A meeting of the IMA Ayushmaan Core Committee was held . All the members expressed grave concern over the grim situation of the hospitals which have drained out of their resources for salaries of staff, meeting out day to day expenses of hospitals and further more creditors who were supplying medicines and implants to hospitals have stopped giving them medicines and implants because of no clearance of their bills.

As the government has issued Ayushmaan cards to all ,the cash work of hospitals, which earlier was helpful in sustaining the expenses, have come down to 10%and now it's not possible for hospitals to work further under debt", further said Dr. Maan while adding that it was pertinent to mention here that there were many facilities which were not available in government sector like paediatrics, cardiology, oncology and urology etc and it's empanelled hospitals related to these facilities who have suffered the most because of non payments of claims and these hospitals had been finding it difficult to render their services further.

Dr. Maan stated that we have been working tirelessly for the benefit of people of Punjab but now as they have drained out of their resources it's not possible for them to provide services under Ayushman scheme. It would create a chaos in the delivery of healthcare services to the people and the government would solely be responsible for the messy situation.