Banking - Yojana

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New Health Policy Focuses on
PriDlary Sector
THE NATIONAL Health
Policy, announced
. recently aims at reviving
the ailing health system and
increasing the primary health
seCtor outlay to ensure a more
equitable access to health services
across the social and geographical
expanse of the country.
The government plans to
increase its contribution to the
health sector from 0.9 per cent of
the GDP at present to 2 per cent
over the next eight years. By 2010,
the policy envisages an increase in
aggregate expendi ture on the
health sector from 5.2 per cent to 6
per cent. It has also been
recommended to the states to
increase expenditure from 5.5 per
cent to 7 per cent of their budget
by 2005 and further to 8 per cent
by 2010. '
According to NHP, 55 per cent
of the outlay would be for the
primary sector and 35 per cen t and
10 per cent for the secondary and
tertiary sectors respectively.
While releasing the revised
health policy, Union Health and
Family Welfare Minister Dr C P
Sushma Chandra
Prices of various essential drugs and formulations
have gone up. This becomes the biggest challenge for
the successful implementation of the new health policy,
which the health authorities 'in the country should
be paying more attention to in the coming years.
Ms. Sushma Chandra is a freelance journalist.
Thakur, said the last policy was
formulated in 1983 and since then
the health scene has changed
dramatically requiring a more
exhaustive approach. So the policy
envisages the setting up of an
organized urban primary health
structure to meet increased needs.
It suggests a two-tiered structure,
with the primary health centre
providing the first tier and a second
tier of a government general
hospital.
For improvement of the public
health infrastructure it suggessts
reyival of the primary health system
by providing essential drugs; levying
of user charges for certain
secondary and tertiary public
health care services for those who
can afford to pay, expanding the
pool of medical practitioners and
simplification of the recruitment
procedures for contract
employment.
For funding and upgrading
existing government medical and
dental colleges, it has suggested
setting up of a Medical Grants
Commission. Even the curriculum
should be modified to make it more
need-b~sed, the policy has stressed.
It has also suggested specialization
in public health, which has been. a
neglected area, both for medical
doctors and non-medical graduates
from allied fields.
To boost medical research, it has
suggested that government-funded
medical research be increased to a
level of one per cent of the total
health spending by 2005 and up to
2 per cent by 2010 .. It laments the
fact that in our country, where the
aggregate annual health
expenditure is of the order of
Rs. 80,000 crore, the expenditure
in 1998-99 on research, both public
and private sectors, was only
Rs. 1,150 crore. It would be
reasonable to infer that with such
low research expenditure, it is
virtually impossible to make any
dramatic break-through within the
country, by way of new molecules
and vaccines; also without a
minimal back-up of applied and
operational research, it would be
difficult to assess whether the
health expenditure in the country
is being incurred through optimal
applications and appropriate
public health strategies.
YOJANAJuly 2002 25
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