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The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss has called for a medical health care delivery system so that life saving essential medicines are available at affordable prices. Addressing, the 58th World Health Assembly in Geneva yesterday, the Minister said that the Patent Amendment Act 2005 incorporates all flexibilities under the TRIPS Agreement for effective availability. He called upon organisations like the WHO to monitor dynamics of the impact of new patent laws worldwide and alert all about the possible fallouts in prices and availability of essential drugs.
The Minister told the Assembly that the Government of India is trying to bring health to the centre of political discourse in the country. In the “Common Minimum Programme by which India is governed we have committed ourselves to increasing public investment in health substantially”, he said. He called for innovations in the management of delivery systems to match the increasing expenditure. “A committed cadre of health workers in rural areas, particularly accountable to local communities, has to be built up”, the Minister said.
Speaking on the National Rural Health Mission launched last month, the Minister pointed out that “it aims at providing effective health care to the entire rural population of India with special focus on 18 States having weak public health indicators. The Mission would initially cover two hundred fifty thousand villages in rural India. Each village will have an “Accredited Social Health Activist(ASHA) : a new ray of hope for villages”, to act as a link between the health centres and the last of the villages in the remotest of areas.”
The core of Rural Health Mission is our commitment to the well being of mothers and children., the Minister added. The Minister called for a comprehensive approach to deal with the painfully high levels of maternal and child mortality still prevalent in our country. On “Reproductive and Child Heath Programme”, the Minister described it as a programme which encompasses the sector-wise approach with flexible funding pool, greater ownership by the States and decentralized planning, programme implementation and institutional strengthening of different levels for achieving the health goals.
EK/SD
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