The Punjab and Haryana High Court is set to hear a crucial plea from the Mohali Industries Association in March, demanding that the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) provide sufficient, cashless, and quality medical services to insured workers and their families. The hearing, initially scheduled for December 15, was postponed due to a strike by high court employees.
Petition Highlights Systemic Failures in ESIC Healthcare
The civil writ petition, filed in August last year, alleges a severe failure by the ESIC to deliver on its healthcare promises. Advocate Jasbir Singh, chairman of the ESI, PF and Labour Laws Committee, pointed out a critical gap: despite the ESI scheme being implemented in Punjab in September 2019, not a single new dispensary or hospital has been established in newly notified areas over the past five years. He further alleged that while ESIC continues to collect contributions from both workers and employers, officials ignore complaints about the lack of facilities during inspections.
Acute Shortage of Infrastructure and Staff
The petition paints a grim picture of the existing healthcare infrastructure. According to ESIC's own guidelines, a dispensary with two doctors is required for every 3,000 insured persons. The state medical officer had identified locations for 12 new dispensaries across Punjab, including in Mohali's Phase 9 Industrial Area and Zirakpur. Other needed locations include Nangal, Kiratpur Sahib, Bela, Chamkaur Sahib, and Morinda. However, none have been made operational.
The situation with current facilities is equally dire. In Mohali, nine ESIC dispensaries are reportedly functioning from dilapidated buildings and face an acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff, with several being run solely by pharmacists. For a region with nearly 3.85 lakh insured persons, a 400-bed ESIC hospital is required, but the existing facility has only 30 beds.
Workers Forced to Pay from Their Pockets
This infrastructure deficit has direct, painful consequences for workers. In serious medical cases, patients are referred to other government hospitals or to PGI Chandigarh, where ESIC has no formal tie-up. This forces workers to bear treatment expenses from their own pockets, defeating the very purpose of the contributory insurance scheme designed to provide cashless care.
Consequently, the petition demands that the ESIC take over the direct management and operation of its hospitals and dispensaries from the state government to ensure better service delivery. The matter will now be heard by a division bench led by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu on March 10.
