India 2018

Health and Family Welfare 287
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Health and Family Welfar
elfare
THE Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is instrumental and responsible
for implementation of various programmes on the national scale in the areas of
health and family welfare, prevention and control of major communicable and
non-communicable diseases as well as promoting research across the country.
It is responsible for formulating health and allied policies, providing guidance
to states towards implementing health programs, managing centrally sponsored
health schemes and programs, medical education, regulation (drugs and
devices) and health infrastructure. Expenditure is incurred by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare either directly under central schemes or by way of
grants-in-aid to the autonomous/statutory bodies, etc. The Ministry of Health
Family Welfare (MoHFW) has two departments - Department of Health &
Family Welfare and Department of Health Research.
Department of AIDS Control has been merged with Department of Health
& Family Welfare and now be known as National AIDS Control Organization
(NACO). In December 2014, Department of AYUSH was made Ministry of
Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH)
with focused attention on development of education and research in ayurveda,
yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy systems. Directorate
General of Health Services (DGHS) is an attached office which renders technical
advice on all medical and public health matters and is involved in the
implementation of various health services.
National Health Policy
The year 2017 saw the release of a new health policy (NHP) of the country after
a gap of 15 years. NHP 2017 addresses the current and emerging challenges
necessitated by the changing socio-economic, technological and epidemiological
landscape. It envisages providing larger package of assured comprehensive
primary healthcare through the health and wellness centres. The policy aims to
attain the highest possible level of health and well-being for all at all ages through
a preventive and promotive healthcare and universal access to quality health
services without anyone having to face financial hardship as a consequence.
This would be achieved through increasing access, improving quality and
lowering the cost of healthcare delivery. NHP 2017 advocates allocating major
proportion (two-thirds or more) of resources to primary care and aims to ensure
availability of two beds per 1,000 population distributed in a manner to enable
access within golden hour. Besides this, the highlights of the policy include:
(i) Assurance based approach - It advocates progressively incremental assurance
based approach with focus on preventive and promotive healthcare; (ii)