The Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Corporation has taken a number of reform initiatives to expand the services of ESI Hospitals in the country. The ESI Corporation in its 167th meeting decided to establish ESI hospitals and dispensaries based on geographical necessity i.e. the health facility should be created not based on the present Insured Persons' population but on the basis of projected population of the Insured Persons after a period of three years for dispensaries and five years for hospitals. Also, ESI Corporation has accepted the recommendation of 46th Indian Labour Conference to upgrade its dispensaries into 6 and 30 bedded hospitals in phased manner. 

This information was given by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today. -WTN