In a first, an open heart surgery under the ambitious Ayushman Bharat Yojana was successfully facilitated in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on December 1, reported IANS.

Devendra (50) from Mainpuri was the first beneficiary of the project and was operated in Pushpanjali Hospital in Agra, under the supervision of a team of doctors including Atul Gupta and Dinesh Jain, informed the Chief Medical officer of Agra district, Mukesh Vats.

Coming from a low-income background, it was not possible for Vats to afford this expensive treatment until Ayushman Bharat came as a God-sent opportunity for him.

The healthcare for all scheme is said to have benefited as many as 3 lakh poor people in the last one-and-a-half months.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) or Ayushman Bharat, popularly also known as ‘Modicare’, which launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September in Ranchi, was termed as a “game-changer initiative to serve the poor”, by the Prime Minister.

Aiming to provide Rs 5 lakh coverage to over 10 crore families covering both rural and urban poor, this cashless scheme is the biggest government-sponsored healthcare scheme in the world.

When the scheme was launched, five states, namely, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab had declared not to adopt the central scheme. Of these states, while Odisha has already launched its own healthcare scheme named Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojna, the Punjab government later changed their mind and declared that they would be joining the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

We had earlier reported how within minutes after this mega flagship program was launched, five patients Renu Barman, Lakhi Rani, Prem Limbu, Asha Sahu, Bhadra Konwar were admitted in hospitals of Assam and were instantly given various cashless treatments, making them the first few to avail benefits from this prestigious scheme. In the first 10 days of its launch, Ayushman Bharat had approximately seen 23,387 claims worth Rs 38 crores.

This flagship scheme had received accolades across the world, with the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat and calling it a “great commitment”.