The coronavirus pandemic has exposed India’s under-preparedness in terms of health infrastructure. The government, thus, on Sunday, announced plans to ramp up health and wellness centres in rural and urban areas. It also said that it would increase investment in public health. At present, only one-fourth of India’s health expenditure comes from states and central government. As a percentage of GDP, the central government’s health expenditure is a meagre 0.3%, while states contribute 0.7%.
The government wishes to correct this with a slew of measures. On Sunday, it announced that it would be creating infectious disease hospital blocks in each district. It also plans to integrate public health labs in all districts & block level labs and public health units to manage pandemics.
But the more significant push is for online services. The government has conducted 291 consultations for 17 hours since April 13 using its e-sanjeevani portal. It now plans to extend its initiatives to strengthen the National Digital Health Blueprint, which will store electronic health records of the population. When Niti Aayog had launched this service last year, Kerala was the only state to have registered 2.58 crore people.
However, health analysts believe this may not be enough, as the government still lacks plans to tackle a pandemic situation.
“The government needs to set a criterion for public health standards,” says Ali Mehdi, lead, health policy initiative, ICRIER.
“No doubt, India needs to spend more, but we also need an action plan, a strategy to deal with the crisis,” he further highlighted.
There is also the issue of personnel. National Health Profile data for 2018 shows a shortage of close to 4 lakh doctors and 30 lakh nurses. An analysis of data highlights that in rural areas where there is only one functioning primary healthcare centre (PHC) for every 64,800 people and one PHC doctor for every 38,000 people, the situation is much worse. Telemedicine may help cover this shortage. But Mehdi points out that we need to look at the issue of lack of auxiliary nurses, midwives and Asha workers, as well.
While the CDDEP estimates project country to have 18.99 lakh beds and close to 94,000 ventilators, if infections double in 10 days, we may not have adequate infrastructure to deal with the crisis. India would need 41 lakh beds by the end of July.
Highlights
– Public health expenditure to be increased
– Implementation of National Digital Health Blueprint for creating electronic health records
– Integrated public health labs in all districts & block level labs and public health unit to manage pandemics
