AIR Spotlight: Expanding Health Infrastructure in India

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio Newsonair. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation. This article features discussion on expanding health infrastructure in India.

Participant : Dr. Raman R Gangakhedkar, Former head scientist of the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division at Indian Council of Medical Research

Moderator : Aditi Tandon, Journalist.

Introduction: 

• The National Health policy aims at achieving universal health coverage and delivering quality health care services to all at affordable cost.
• It also envisages the increase in health expenditure by the Government as a percentage of GDP from the existing 1.15 % to 2.5 % by 2025.
• During COVID-19 Pandemic, the government ensured universal vaccination with indigenous vaccines by ramping up the public health infrastructure.

India’s overall performance response during the Pandemic:

• The Covid pandemic required a multisectoral response which was delivered with  a coordinated effort.
• The pandemic has opened up the way for digital intervention in the healthcare systems.
• India’s health expenditure was raised to 2.1 percent of GDP for the first time during Pandemic according to the Economic Survey 2021-22. 
• India’s COVID-19 recovery rate was 97% while its 1.44% fatality rate was the lowest in the world.
• India was also one of the first countries to isolate the virus. 
• With a focus on health infrastructure, India increased laboratory facilities to 2,362 now from the sole lab at National Institute of Virology, Pune. 
• A digital platform Co-WIN was developed to support the vaccination activity with real-time information.
• India produced nearly 60 percent of the world’s vaccines and exported the vaccine globally.

Pradhan MantriAyushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission:

• India’s health expenditure saw a rise of nearly 73 per cent – from Rs 2.73 lakh crore in 2019-20 to Rs 4.72 lakh crore in 2021-22. This includes the Rs 35,000 crore that the Centre allocated on the Covid-19 vaccination scheme. 
• In addition to the National Health Mission, the government announced Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission.
• It is a new centrally sponsored scheme with an outlay of about Rs 64,180 crore in next five years to develop capacities of primary, secondary and tertiary health care systems, strengthen existing national institutions, create new institutions to cater to detection of new and emerging diseases. 
• Increased investments are also targeted in the mission to support research on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, including biomedical research to generate evidence to inform short-term and medium-term response to COVID-19 like pandemics and to develop core capacity to deliver the One Health Approach to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in animals and humans.
• The major aim of PM-ABHIM is to establish a health system which is responding effectively to the future pandemics/disasters.

National Digital Health Mission:

• Apart from creating public health infrastructure and being ready for any future pandemics, the government is also trying to put in place a digital health mission. 
• It aims to make India Self-reliant in providing universal health coverage to all the citizens. It aligns with the goals and objectives of the National Health Policy and the National Digital Health Blueprint to create a digital infrastructure for providing healthcare services across the country.
• This digital infrastructure would consist of large amounts of health-related data and various standardised digital services while ensuring strict  confidentiality and security of personal information of the public.
• National digital health mission  will play a key role in policy making with the increased penetration of  mobile phones and the internet.
• It will help in developing an integrated health information system that serves the needs of all stakeholders and improves efficiency, transparency and citizens’ experience with linkage across public and private healthcare.

Health Package for Transgenders:

• Recently, transgenders were brought under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
• The National Health Authority  and Department of Social Justice and Empowerment signed a Memorandum of Understanding  to provide an inclusive and composite health package for transgenders under PM-JAY.
• The Union Ministry of Social Justice  will fund Rs.5 lakh insurance cover per transgender beneficiary per annum.
• Now, all transgenders will be eligible to seek treatment in any AB PM-JAY empanelled hospitals across the country, where specific packages will be made available. 
• It is a progressive step considering the stigma and exclusion faced by the transgender community.
• This will reduce the ineqality in healthcare for transgender community.

Integrated disease surveillance program :

• It was activated as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Main objective is to strengthen  decentralised laboratory based and IT enabled disease surveillance systems for epidemic prone diseases to monitor disease trends.
• India has units across more than 700 districts under the program.
• A devoted cadre for disease surveillance along with coordinated efforts and action is needed to fight future pandemics.
• The ‘One Health’ approach has to be promoted beyond policy discourses and made functional on the ground.

Conclusion: The emergence and re-emergence of new and old diseases and an increase in cases of endemic diseases are partly unavoidable. Investments into health systems capacity to recognise and respond to public health threats and strong primary health care delivery systems will determine the future course of these public health emergencies.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

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