Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (AB-HIM)

• In the Budget speech of FY 21-22, ‘Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana’ (PMASBY) scheme which has now been renamed PM – Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) was announced on 1st February 2021, with an outlay of about Rs. 64,180 Cr over six years (till FY 25-26).
• This scheme is in addition to the National Health Mission.

• The measures under the scheme focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels viz. primary, secondary and tertiary and on preparing health systems in responding effectively to the current and future pandemics/disasters.
• The Mission targets to build an IT enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels, in Metropolitan areas & strengthening health units at the Points of Entry, for effectively detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks.

The components of the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) scheme are:

1) Centrally Sponsored Components:

• Support for 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 High Focus States.
• Establishing 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres in all the States.
• 3382 Block Public Health Units in 11 High Focus states. Support for other States/UTs under XV Finance Commission Health Sector Grants and NHM.
• Setting up of Integrated Public Health Labs in all districts.
• Establishing Critical Care Hospital Blocks in all districts with population more than 5 lakhs.

2) Central Sector Components

• 12 Central Institutions as training and mentoring sites with 150 bedded Critical Care Hospital Blocks;
• Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 5 New Regional NCDCs and 20 metropolitan health surveillance units;
• Expansion of the Integrated Health Information Portal to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs;
• Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, that is at 32 Airports, 11 Seaports and 7 land crossings;
• Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Operation Centres and 2 container-based mobile hospitals; and
• Setting up of a national institution for One Health, 4 New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South-East Asia Region and 9 Bio-Safety Level III laboratories.

The National Health Mission is envisaged to establish a fully functional, community-owned, decentralized health delivery system with inter-sectoral convergence at all levels. NHM aims to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care mainly focusing on primary and secondary care. However, PM-ABHIM is the largest pan-India scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country which focuses on the primary, secondary and tertiary care services. The major aim of PM-ABHIM to establish a health system which is responding effectively to the future pandemics/disasters.

Under the scheme, there is a provision for setting up of Integrated Public Health Labs (IPHLs) in all 730 districts across the country (upto FY 2025-26) with the outlay of Rs 1482.60 Crore which includes Rs 990.40 Crore as Central Share and Rs 492.20 Crore as State Share.