Health budget could have been increased, says health expert

Following the Union Budget presented on February 1, director-general of Asociation of Healthcare Providers Dr Girdhar Gyani suggested that the health budget should have received a much better financial allocation especially to improve the scenario of the child mortality rate.

New Delhi: Experts on India's health sector on Monday emphasised that the health budget should have received much better financial allocation keeping in mind the Centre's flagship programmes to provide healthcare facilities to each and every citizen.

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the Lok Sabha on Saturday allocated a budgetary allocation of Rs 69000 crore with a little increase in comparison to last year's allocation of Rs 62000 crore.

While talking to ETV Bharat, Dr Girdhar Gyani, director-general of Asociation of Healthcare Providers (India) said that the allocation could have been much better.

"Government has been planning to provide health care facilities to each and every citizen of the country. When they (Govt) talk about Ayushman Bharat, they talk of providing medical treatments to the needy across India. But in Ayushman Bharat also, the budgetary allocation of Rs 6400 crore remain same," said Dr Gyani and added that there was a very little increase from last year's budgetary allocation of Rs 62000 crore.

He, however, said that Government has given attention to a very critical issue that is nutrition.

"Rs 35000 crore was earmarked for nutrition. This was necessary. In fact, lack of nutrition among infants was the major reason for child mortality across India," said Gyani.

Interestingly, the recent incidents of child deaths in Kota and Gorakhpur hospitals were due to the lack of nutrition among newborns.

Dr Gyani also said that the government initiative of attaching medical colleges with district hospitals across India is a positive step.

"This will definitely improve the numbers of teachers and paramedics in states across India," he said.

Dr Gyani also lauded the steps of imposing cess on imported medical devices.

"The steps taken in this sector would definitely bolster the manufacturers for indigenous equipment," said Gyani.

Interestingly, in her budget, Sitaraman also proposed to set up a viability gap funding window for setting up hospitals in the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

And in the first phase, out of the 112 aspirational districts, the districts with no Ayushman empanelled hospitals will be preferred.