The Hindu : New health policy envisages injection of more funds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 28, 2002

National

National

New health policy envisages injection of more funds

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI April 27. The Union Cabinet has approved a new national health policy envisaging a massive increase in government expenditure in the health sector. The expenditure at the Central and State levels would increase from 0.9 per cent of the GDP now to 2 per cent by 2010.

The Centre would bear the bulk of the increase, considering ''the extremely difficult fiscal position of the States''. Its share would increase to 25 per cent by 2010 from the present 15 per cent. Fiftyfive 55 per cent of the increase would target the primary sector, followed by 35 per cent for the secondary sector and 15 per cent for the tertiary sector. The States' contribution would rise from 5.5 per cent now to seven per cent by 2005 and eight per cent by 2010.

The new policy envisages enforcement of a mandatory two-year rural posting before an MBBS graduate gets his or her degree so that trained manpower is available in under-served areas as well as to ensure that "valuable'' clinical experience is made available to new doctors.

A paradigm shift is also planned in medical education to remove the gross manpower imbalance in different specialities. A phased programme is planned at the end of which at least one-fourth of the post-graduates seats in teaching institutions would be reserved exclusively for the much neglected areas of public health and family medicine.

Recognising the contributions made by non-government organisations in providing quality health service, the policy envisages the handing over of public health service outlets to NGOs and other such institutions of civil society on an "as-is-where-is" basis, along with the normative funds earmarked for such institutions.

"Reasonable'' user charges may be levied from those who can pay for certain secondary and tertiary public healthcare services and the pool of medical practitioners may be expanded to include a cadre of licentiates in medical practice as also practitioners of the various Indian systems of medicine.

The scope for the use of paramedical manpower of the allopathic disciplines in prescribed functional areas would be examined to meet simple public health requirements on the lines of the services rendered by nurses in several developed countries.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National