West Bengal assembly committee on health and family welfare wants discussions between World Bank and peoples representatives regarding Bank loan for health care.
Subject committee of the West Bengal Assembly on health, family welfare and public health engineering has suggested that the Union government and World Bank should have detailed discussions with peoples representatives and not with officials alone for strengthening of secondary level hospital services in the state.
The committee in its fourteenth report has mentioned that in West Bengal present health care infrastructure is extensive and needs rationalisation.In general there is an indoctrination for asking for unnecessary diagnosis and theraputic procedure.The commercialisation of entire curative service is doing much dis-service to the people and medical science.
More From This Section
The World Bank project which has been instituted by an agreement between Union and state governments emphasised the need for decentralisation of the present health care system.The state government must find out means by which maximum benefit could be available from the project.
While welcoming the idea of decentralisation of health care the committee has observed in its report that the provision of sophisticated instruments in the district and sub-district level and errection of hospital buildings are fraught with the danger of creating illusion in the mind of the people.There is a propensity to accept high cost low efficiency technology by the poeple in the name of scientific advancement.This takes away the emphasis on low cost high efficiency technology which is congenial for the people of developing countries.
The committee in its report says that the decentralisation process to be implemented with World Bank finance is vitiated by many conditionalities and structured form of implementation.The decentralisation process can be successful if positive autonomy is granted to the decentralised units both in the formulation and implementation of the project.
The committee has observed that in the developing countries only 10 per cent of the sick population requires institutional treatment.Remaining 90 per cent is preventable and can be tackled by minimum medicare.The present approach of World Bank is fraught with the danger of destabilising the public health structure and marginalise the preventive and promotive aspect of health which is integrally dependent on social justice.
In its analysis of the World Bank project the committee states that the assistance is a loan with 13 per cent interest.Out of the total amount of loan 40 per cent is ear-marked for civil work, 30 per cent for equipment and 15 per cent for training of health personnel.This means only 15 per cent remains for proper health care of the people at the secondary level.
It has expressed the apprehension that the loan being advanced to the government contains the danger of destabilising the philosophy and culture of life.