Mumbai: ABHA registrations mandatory for all

The initiative will first be implemented as a pilot project in 11 wards

The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) scheme is being implemented by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), making it mandatory for private practitioners in the city to register their patients on the ABHA website. This will help create a digital database of patients' health records on the centralised server. However, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has expressed concerns about data security.

The BMC has decided to implement this initiative as a pilot project in 11 administrative wards. According to a BMC official, private medical practitioners and facilities will be registered under ABHA, while health professionals and facilities will be registered under the Health Care Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR), respectively.

"Since November 2022, a total of 3,500 medical professionals have been trained by the BMC, of which 1,000 registered with the initiative. Additionally, there are 850 medical professionals who are using this digital technology to create electric health records," said the official.

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According to BMC's Executive Health Officer Dr Managala Gomare, the city has been at the forefront of digitisation in public health. "This pilot project provides an excellent opportunity to lead the way and set an example for other cities and states for the rapid adoption of this transformative mission by the private sector," she said.

However, Ravi Vankhedkar, National President, IMA, expressed concerns regarding the security of data. "This data is a goldmine for pharma companies and the healthcare sector and can easily be misused," he said, adding that the data will be handled by contractual workers and there are no measures in place to maintain patient privacy.

What is ABHA
ABHA serves as a unique patient identifier that allows the storing of digitised health records on one portal. The system benefits both patients and healthcare providers by facilitating easy registration, scheduling and managing of appointments, and access to paperless health records. It could also be used to send patients reminders and to share medical records with other healthcare providers for a second opinion, with due patient consent.

1,000
Healthcare professionals registered so far