No more public-private demarcation for healthcare: Dr VK Paul
BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI: Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, has said that the public and private sectors in healthcare have come together and are fully committed to serve the patients in the country.
Dr Paul was speaking at ‘FICCI HEAL 2019 – Health of Healthcare in India’, organised in New Delhi by FICCI and supported by NITI Aayog and National Health Authority.
“Private-public demarcations are over once and for all. We are working together on agreed terms and methodologies through dialogue and systems with an endeavour to find solutions to the challenges of our healthcare system” Dr Paul said.
He said, “From about 60,000 MBBS seats last year, this year we have about 76,000 seats and actually a potential of about 80,000 seats.”
The NITI Aayog member also said that strengthening human resources for the health sector is the key focus of the government, for which it does not differentiate between public and private sectors.
He claimed, “The government is working to establish 75 additional medical colleges in the next 4-5 years largely through PPP models for district hospitals and other mechanisms. This is in addition to the creation of 82 medical colleges that began 5 years ago.”
Ms Sangita Reddy, Senior Vice President, FICCI, and Joint MD, Apollo Hospitals, said, “Ayushman Bharat is transformational for the country. Now we need to up the dialogue on healthcare further and converge the power of Ayushman Bharat with the viability for the sector to make quality healthcare sustainable.”
Dr Arvind Lal, Chair, FICCI Health Services Committee, and CMD, Dr Lal Pathlabs, said, “As the country aims to become a $ 5 Trillion economy, healthcare industry will play a major part in building a prosperous and a healthy India.”
He pointed out, “Fund allocation to the North Eastern states has shot up by almost 250% over the last 5 years. Imagine if this was to happen in health care. We urge the government to increase the public health spend to at least 2.5% of GDP, as envisaged in the National Health Policy 2017, and preferably to 3%, at the earliest.”
