Nat'l Health Policy to hike health spending to 2.5% of GDP: Nadda

The National Health Policy, which was unveiled by Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Thursday, has several new proposals that may help in changing the healthcare scenario of the country.

Out of several key plans, the two important initiatives such as setting up of National Healthcare Standard Organisation and Special Health Tribunal would play crucial role in face lifting the healthcare facilities in India. Both the bodies would help in preparing guidelines for treatment protocols as well as resolving the disputes between hospitals and patients arising out of it.

The new policy had underlined the government's role in shaping health strategy and also proposed to increase public health spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 1.4 per cent in a time-bound manner. The policy, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, also stressed on improving life expectancy from the current 67.5 years to 70 years by 2025 and proposes free diagnostics and drugs at all public hospitals.

The policy calls for a "stronger partnership" between the public and private sectors to leverage "their strengths to achieve national health goals" and seeks to move away from meeting the disease burden challenge to a more proactive "thrust on prevention and health promotion".

The new policy puts emphasis on reorientation and strengthening of the public health systems, Nadda said in a statement to Parliament.

"The policy is patient-centric and empowers the patient for resolution of all their problems. The policy also looks at reforms in existing regulatory systems, both for easing manufacturing of drugs and devices, to promote Make in India, and for reforming medical education. The policy has at its centre, the person who seeks and needs medical care," the Health Minister said.

The Policy advocates allocating a major proportion (two-thirds or more) of resources to primary care. "It aims to ensure availability of 2 beds per 1,000 population distributed in a manner to enable access within golden hour. In order to provide access and financial protection, it proposes free drugs, free diagnostics and free emergency and essential healthcare services in all public hospitals," Nadda said.

Later speaking at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Nadda said, "There will no health cess to finance this policy. Instead, we will convert 1.5 lakh health centres to wellness centres. In addition, we will also provide free drugs and diagnostic facilities till the district level hospitals."