The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has introduced the Revised ESI Policy on AYUSH – 2023 to strengthen and expand AYUSH healthcare services across ESI hospitals, dispensaries, and Dispensary Cum Branch Offices (DCBOs), ensuring integrated healthcare for insured persons and their beneficiaries. The revised policy was formulated to facilitate smoother implementation of the policy approved at the 193rd meeting of the ESI Corporation on February 10, 2024.
The policy provides for the establishment of AYUSH OPD units, 50-bedded AYUSH hospitals, Yoga therapy units, Panchakarma units and Kshara-Sutra units. AYUSH units may generally be established in ESI facilities with an average Allopathic OPD attendance exceeding 150 patients per day over the preceding 12 months, subject to prescribed conditions and ESIC Headquarters approval.
A 50-bedded AYUSH hospital may be established within an existing ESI Allopathic hospital having at least 500 beds. It will provide five Ayurveda specialities: General Medicine, Panchakarma, Surgery, ENT and Ophthalmology, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The policy also prescribes eligibility and staffing norms for Yoga, Panchakarma and Kshara-Sutra units, including patient attendance and procedure-based criteria. It provides for contractual engagement of qualified professionals through GeM as an interim arrangement until regular staff is appointed.
The revised policy aims to strengthen preventive, promotive, curative, and rehabilitative healthcare through collaboration between AYUSH and modern medicine, with periodic monitoring of service utilisation and performance.
Please refer to the document attached below for more details.
