|
During the year 2004, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Systems of Medicine adopted an integrated approach to improve and increase access to primary and rural healthcare system. A new National Rural Health Mission is being formulated to bring about integrated health delivery systems in rural areas with special focus on primary healthcare in order to arrest the prevalence and spread of disease.
The Government also launched a World Bank assisted Integrated Disease Surveillance Project. The new scheme will bring about a sea change in understanding diseases patterns and monitoring risk factors for disease control and prevention. This is a much needed programme which will enable notification of a disease in any part of the country within six hours of the outbreak. In course of time, the Disease Surveillance Project will be turned into a monitoring Programme for monitoring and surveillance of health parameters and availability of doctors and facilities in the remote parts of the country.
Given the need to control HIV/AIDS, a fresh surveillance and evaluation of the incidence of the disease is to be carried out. This would enable the formulation of a better approach in increasing awareness and preventing AIDS. The Anti-Retroviral Treatment which is currently being administered in the eight hospitals is to be extended to twenty five hospitals in all states in the country.
In order to prepare for increased investment as proposed in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) for the health sector, the National Commission on Macro-economics and Health is broadly assessing areas where increased investment will be required as well as the impact it will have. The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry was provided an additionality of Rs.408 crore to contain disease burden on account of communicable diseases. For AIDS an additional amount of Rs.217 crore has been provided.
Given the increased incidence in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardio vascular diseases, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry proposes to start a National Programme on Diabetes and Cardio Vascular Diseases. The aim of the Ministry is to check the spread of lifestyle related diseases through greater awareness and preventive measures.
With a view to make available good quality drugs, the Ministry is in the process of augmenting the food and drug testing capacity in the country. The World Bank assisted capacity building project at a total estimated cost of Rs.325 crore is under implementation. Under this programme, the Government is in the process of augmenting the food and drug testing capacity in the country, both at the State and the Central level by providing expensive laboratory equipments, additional technical staff, construction of laboratories where required and renovation of many existing laboratories. An elaborate training programme to build capacity of personnel involved in enforcement and quality control has also been started.
Advances in medical technology have opened up new horizons in the treatment of many complicated medical conditions. But, unlike in other fields, the advances in the medical field are increasing the cost of the medical care. This has further increased problem of affordability and accessibility for the poor. With a view to improve the access of funds for health care, the National Advisory Council has decided to formulate specific proposals on health insurance for the poor, community health volunteers, and health delivery systems. The Health Ministry held a National Consultation to consider a viable proposal for health insurance for the poor. The deliberations came up with several ideas which are under the consideration of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
|
