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The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr. A. Ramadoss has said that soon a National Programme on Diabetes and Cardio Vascular diseases will be started. Addressing the Social Editors’ Conference today, he said that he had taken up the matter with the Planning Commission for inclusion of this programme at the time of the mid-term review of the 10th Five Year Plan. The Minister said that the non-communicable diseases were on the increase and there was a need to control and prevent the spread of these diseases through greater awareness and preventive measures. Outlining the important programmes of his Ministry and the achievements during the last few months of the UPA Government, the Minister said that a Rs. 408 crore World Bank assisted project on Integrated Disease Surveillance will be started shortly. This is a five-year Project and aims at developing a decentralized, State-based system of surveillance, both for communicable and non-communicable diseases in the country. The Project, which is going to be implemented in three phases, would be able to detect early warning signals of impending outbreaks and help initiate an effective response in a timely manner. It is also expected to provide essential data to monitor progress of ongoing disease control programmes and help to allocate the limited health resources more optimally.
Speaking on the food and drug sector, he said, the centre 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 for the food and drug sector is now a year old and has since then been making considerable headway, the Minister said under this Project, the Government is in the process of augmenting the food and drug testing capacity in the country, both at the State and Central level by providing expensive laboratory equipment, additional technical staff, construction of laboratories where required, and renovation of many existing laboratories. An elaborate training programme for regulatory personnel involved in enforcement and quality control throughout the country has also been commissioned.
The Minister also announced two National Institute of Geriatrics, one in Delhi and one in the south.
On Polio eradication, he said the efforts of the Ministry will be intensified. He was confident of eradicates the disease by the end of 2005. On population stabilization, Dr. Ramadoss clarified that the measures will be implemented without any coercion and will focus on building public private partnership, greater condom awareness creation and capacity building which would help not only in population stabilization measures but also bringing down the MMR and IMR.
Earlier addressing the Conference, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Smt. P. Lakshmi emphasized the need for community based and public health oriented solutions to tackle communicable diseases, epidemics, and disability management and population stabilization.
Even though 80% of the medical professionals are found to be providing primary healthcare services, they are located in the urban areas of the country, where only 20% of the population live, she said. The latest medical technologies, secondary and tertiary care facilities are also concentrated in the urban and metros. This disparity is still increasing the divide between the needy and the availability of services.
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. She said various studies have shown that 80% of the health expenditure is out of the pocket money which amounts to 4% of the GDP. This is leading to financial hardships and even adverse health consequences for the poor. This amounts to a large chunk of financial resources of the country. This needs to be channeled in a systematic way, for which ‘risk pooling’ or insurance is a potential option, the Minister emphasized.
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