'Comprehensive health care is still a far cry'

Noting that comprehensive health care is still a "far cry", a group of doctors today said there is a serious fear that the recently unveiled National Health Policy will remain only on paper.

Noting that the NHP was declared after the budget for the year had been presented, Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) said that this raises doubts over the intentions as the government in power had cut the expenditure on health by 20 per cent last year.

Noting that one interesting target on population stabilisation has been fixed in the policy which advocates increasing the proportion of male sterilisation from less than 5 per cent currently to 30 per cent, IDPD said that it is "fraught with the danger of coercion reminding us the of the emergency era".
 

"Comprehensive health care in India is still a far cry and based on the past experience there is a serious fear that the Health Policy 2017 will remain in papers only," IDPD doctors said at the national seminar on 'Health Through Peace'.

"The health policy was declared after the budget for the year had been presented, it raises doubts over the intentions as the government in power had cut the expenditure on health by 20 per cent last year.

"If the government was serious about increasing the budget it could have done before the budget presentation. Promise of increasing the public spending of GDP on health to 2.5 per cent by the year 2025 is too low," said Shakeel-ur-Rahman, General Secretary of IDPD.

He maintained that the increase in GDP on health to 2.5 per cent has been announced in past also - first in 12th Plan of government by 2017 and again in the draft National Health Policy Bill by 2020.

The body said that one of the main thrust in the policy document is on "strategic purchasing" of health services from private sector not only for secondary and tertiary care but also in primary health care in urban setting.

The NHP 2017 brought by the government recently aims at providing "assured health services to all" and also proposes free drugs, diagnostics and emergency care services in all public hospitals.

"This in turn will weaken further the moribund public health sector which has been starved of sufficient health funding by successive past government.

"The policy is a mixed bag of moderate plan for all stakeholders - promise of modest increase in resources, promise of improved access to care and accountability-oriented provisions and formulation of strategic purchasing of care, thus paving way for further expansion of outsourcing to largely unregulated private sector," the body said.