Army mulls separate hospitals for ex-servicemen

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 3

The Army is exploring the feasibility of setting up hospitals in various parts of the country to cater exclusively to the ex-servicemen, besides revamping the existing administrative set up at Army Headquarters to deal with veterans’ issues.

Stating this today during the inauguration of Ashray, a home for aged ex-servicemen set up at Panchkula by the Western Command, Chief of the Army Staff General Dalbir Singh said as a pilot project, a veterans’ section was being set up at the Base Hospital in New Delhi.

“This would be followed by setting up similar sections for catering to the ex-servicemen in other military hospitals and there are plans to establish separate hospitals for them,” he said.

At present, medical care to the ex-servicemen and their dependants is being provided through the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), a network of in house polyclinics and empanelled private hospitals.

Some private medi-care centres opted out of the ECHS after facing issues such as budgetary support, non-availability of certain medicines and delay in clearing hospital bills. Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence had repeatedly highlighted issues concerning the ECHS.

General Dalbir said the Adjutant General’s Branch at Army Headquarters had been asked to conduct a study to identify problems and suggest measures to streamline the functioning of the ECHS.

He said as part of the Army’s endeavour to ensure welfare of the retired fraternity, the ex-servicemen’s cell at Army Headquarters was being expanded to a full- fledged directorate. “The existing cell was small and had difficulty in coping with the vast numbers of ex-servicemen. The Adjutant General’s Branch would control the new directorate,” he said.