Member of Parliament Kartikeya Sharma on Monday raised the issue of sorry state of affairs of Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Health Centres in Haryana. Making a special mention in Rajya Sabha, the MP said: “I am very sorry to mention that the state of affairs at the region’s ESIC Health Centres, which cater to employees of private and government sectors, is very pathetic as they are plagued with an acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff.” He added that lack of required strength of doctors, especially specialists, forces the patients to seek treatment in already overburdened government-run or private hospitals with hefty cost. “Also, the inflow of patients is so high that medical infrastructure in the ESIC Health Centres has practically broken with patients waiting for even three months for MRI, CT-Scan and other imaging tests”, Kartikeya Sharma said. Another issue is that only 15 hospitals have tied up with ESIC in Haryana. Informing the Upper House, the MP said that it is heartening to hear that the Central Government has announced five ESIC Hospitals will be set up in the districts of Hisar, Ambala, Karnal, Sonipat/Rohtak and Panchkula of Haryana to ensure affordable healthcare for the people working in the unorganized sector. “I have also heard that hon’ble Prime Minister has instructed the ESIC to expand its medical infrastructure by enhancing its reach to all 740 districts of the country by using its more than Rs. Trillion Reserve Fund, lying mostly in fixed-income instruments with the banks.” The MP urged the Union government to take immediate steps to set up the hospitals and do the needful to fill the vacant posts of doctors and paramedical staff urgentiy.