A total of 19,668 hospitals in the country have been empanelled under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana on 25th of November this year.

They included over nine thousand hospitals in the private sector. This information was given in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey. Gujarat topped the list with 2856 empanelled hospitals followed by Karnataka with 2849 and Uttar Pradesh with 2312 hospitals.

In reply to another question on the provision of emergency medicines, the Minister said, the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India have decided that Department of Emergency Medicine shall be a mandatory requirement with effect from 2022-23 academic year onwards in all Medical Colleges.