Several private hospitals in Kolkata have joined a three-day workshop on the Health Facility Registry and Health Professional Registry to facilitate their onboarding under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. The workshop, organized by the North 24 Parganas district administration, is being held in Barasat from May 20 to 22.
Workshop Participation and Progress
Over 300 hospitals and clinical establishments have so far attended the meet and initiated the online process. A team from Bengal was trained in Delhi and will conduct further workshops for hospitals across the state. At least three Kolkata hospitals have completed the onboarding process over the past week, while several others are at various stages of completion. The onboarding workshops are conducted twice daily, each lasting two hours and 15 minutes. A virtual onboarding meeting was also conducted by Swasthya Bhavan for hospitals and nursing homes across Bengal on May 19.
Understanding the Registries
The Health Facility Registry (HFR) is a unified digital healthcare ecosystem in India that links doctors, hospitals, and patients, enabling seamless management of electronic health records. The Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) is a centrally maintained, verified repository of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and allied healthcare workers across all medical systems.
Hospital Perspectives
Rupali Basu, regional business head for East and AP at HCG Cancer Hospitals, said, 'We attended the workshop convened by the North 24 Parganas DM on Thursday, where HCG and other hospitals were trained on the onboarding process for Ayushman Bharat. Our registry was completed earlier, and we were informed that a state nodal team is undergoing training in Delhi and, on return, will guide all hospitals for further integration.' Charnock Hospital and Techno India DAMA Hospital were among those that attended the meet.
Basu added, 'While we are in the process, citizens who are already covered by personal or corporate health insurance, or are economically well placed, may ideally remain outside the scheme's ambit.' The head of a hospital in Salt Lake noted, 'We have started the process. There was no direction on the transfer of the existing scheme or patients to Ayushman Bharat, other than that Swasthya Sathi will continue.'
Association of Hospitals of Eastern India
The Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI) held an internal meeting on Wednesday, in which all private hospitals were asked to get empanelled for Ayushman and continue admitting patients under Swasthya Sathi. Rupak Barua, CEO of Woodlands Hospital, which has just completed the onboarding process, stated, 'Most hospitals have started onboarding. We are waiting for instructions from the government on merging Swasthya Sathi with Ayushman.' Manipal Hospitals has also initiated the empanelment process. Ayanabh Debgupta, regional director of Manipal Hospitals East, commented, 'The Ayushman Bharat initiative is playing a crucial role in expanding access to quality and affordable healthcare across the country.'
