₹1.32 Crore Spent On Diabetic Foot Treatment For 560 Patients Under Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana
Timely Treatment Under Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana Helps Protect Diabetic Patients From Limb Loss
Hoping To Save My Foot, I Got Timely Treatment Under Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana: Harcharan Singh, Beneficiary
Timely Surgery Gave Me Chance To Fight The Infection: Raja, Beneficiary
Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana Treatment Helped Me Avoid Fear Of Losing My Foot: Veena, Beneficiary
Treatment Under Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana Helped Me Overcome My Non-Healing Foot Ulcer: Santokh Singh, Beneficiary
CHANDIGARH, September 8:
The wound may have looked small.
The danger was anything but small.
For a person living with diabetes, a cut on the foot can slowly turn into a medical emergency. Nerve damage can dull pain, making injuries easy to miss. Poor circulation can slow healing, while infection can spread into deeper tissues and, in severe cases, threaten the limb itself. For hundreds of patients in Punjab, Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana (MMSY) became the safety net when a diabetic foot problem escalated into a fight for recovery.
At 47, Harcharan Singh was battling advanced diabetic foot disease. Nerve damage had reduced his ability to detect injury, while infection had spread into deeper tissues. Doctors performed surgical debridement to remove infected and dead tissue and give the foot a chance to heal.
Raja, 38, faced a similar danger. A wound he could barely feel because of diabetic nerve damage developed into a serious infection, with the risk of it reaching the bone. Timely surgery became necessary.
For another beneficiary, Veena, 57, poor circulation made healing difficult. Her ulcer progressed to the point where the foot was at risk of amputation. Surgery was required to remove infected tissue.
Then there is Santokh Singh, 67, who developed a non-healing diabetic foot ulcer with pus formation. Surgical intervention was needed to drain the infection and remove the affected tissue.
Four patients. Four different journeys. One frightening possibility: losing a limb.
But timely treatment gave all four a crucial chance to fight the infection and protect their limbs.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh said, “Behind every statistic under Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana is a human life—a father, a mother, a son or a daughter whose family is hoping for one more chance. Diabetic foot complications can progress silently and, if treatment is delayed, can threaten mobility and even the limb itself. Our priority is to ensure that no family in Punjab has to choose between seeking timely treatment and worrying about whether they can afford it.”
Dr Balbir Singh added that Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana is designed to ensure that when a patient reaches the hospital, the focus remains on saving the patient, not on the family’s ability to pay.
“The success of Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana should not be measured only in the number of treatments or the amount spent, but in what those treatments make possible—a patient returning home, a family spared financial distress and, in cases such as diabetic foot disease, a limb that can still be saved. That is the purpose of a people-centred healthcare system: to stand with families when they need it most,” said Dr Balbir Singh.
The latest State Health Agency data shows that 560 patients received treatment for diabetic foot and associated complications, with a total expenditure of ₹1.32 crore in the last nearly eight months under the Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana. Surgical management accounted for the largest share, covering 126 patients and ₹44.55 lakh in expenditure. Another 123 patients received medical management.
The remaining cases involved prolonged dressing and antibiotic care, toe and foot surgeries, below-knee procedures, skin grafts, imaging such as CT and MRI, blood and platelet transfusions, and treatment of serious associated conditions, including diabetic ketoacidosis, severe sepsis and anaemia.
That is where Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana becomes more than a policy on paper. For these patients, it meant treatment could begin without the immediate burden of an unaffordable hospital bill becoming another emergency.
