New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) The Union health ministry on Thursday hosted 'CGHS Panchayat', a first-of-its-kind initiative of the Centre to provide an open platform for all CGHS stakeholders, including pensioners, beneficiaries and healthcare organisations, to put forth their concerns.

Such a platform will enable the government to understand the issues in the implementation of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) with a view to improving it, a statement by the ministry said.

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These programmes will be conducted in every state henceforth, on a regular basis.

The programme witnessed more than 150 participations from local pensioners associations, employees associations like Postal Department Employees Association, BSNL Employees Association and Income Tax Employees Association, the statement said.

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Representatives of CGHS Empanelled Hospitals, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), healthcare organisations, doctors and staff of CGHS Wellness Centres of Tamil Nadu also participated.

The health ministry officials responded to the concerns expressed by the members of associations.

They were assured that the Centre is fully committed for improving the service delivery by providing cashless treatment facility to the eligible beneficiaries and also by providing healthcare to the serving government employees, the statement said.

It was conveyed to the association members that the health ministry is in complete cognizance of certain demands pertaining to the scheme which will be considered and appropriate steps will be taken to address them.

The key concerns raised by the healthcare organisations with regard to the outstanding payments and revision of rates in CGHS were duly noted by the ministry officials, and it was stated that necessary action was already initiated in the ministry for addressing these concerns, the statement added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)