Public-private tie-up needed in healthcare

ECONOMIC SURVEY 2003-04/ SOCIAL SECTOR ISSUES

Calling for an increased public spending on health, the Economic Survey has said there is considerable scope for strengthening public-private partnerships in the delivery of healthcare services. It has also called for a close monitoring of the expenditure on the sector.

Emphasising the importance of social infrastructure in sustaining growth and enhancing welfare, it has said the root of poverty often lies in illiteracy and measures to enhance the quality of healthcare will go a long way in addressing the social sector problems of the country.

The Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government talks of raising the public spending on health from 1.4 per cent of the GDP in 2003-04 to 2-3 per cent.

Larger investment in health will be needed merely to maintain the current health situation as the technology required for tackling resistant infections and non-communicable diseases are expensive and result in escalation of healthcare costs.

The quality of publicly funded health facilities needs to be improved considerably. Also, the government will need to tackle the imbalances in the healthcare delivery system.

The country has "a plethora of hospitals but few are located in areas with high morbidity", the survey has pointed out. The focus of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) is to revamp the existing healthcare infrastructure so that it can deliver services to people residing in well-defined geographical areas and have appropriate referral linkages among primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

It aims to provide essential primary healthcare, emergency life saving services, services under the National Disease Control Programmes free of cost to all individuals and essential healthcare services to people below the poverty line.

The Economic Survey has also expressed concern over the increasing number of HIV/AIDS patients in the country. The number of HIV infected people have risen from 3.5 million in 1998 to 4.58 million in 2003. As these people progress to AIDS, the medical, economic, and social costs will be enormous, it points out.