The Hindu : New Delhi News : Doctors send SOS to Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Doctors send SOS to Govt.

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, JULY 2. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country's largest non-government organisation of doctors, has sent a memorandum to the Union Government urging it to "put the collapsing primary health care set-up back on track".

Primary among its set of demands are increased and more generous allocation of funds "without which the health care infrastructure will soon collapse leading to increased number of poor being left out without adequate health care and a rise in the number of unlicensed doctors in the country".

The IMA has forwarded its demands to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, asking not just for a more generous fund allocation but also calling for making health a fundamental right. Members of IMA have also demanded that adequate attention be given to primary health care centres which cater to the poor.

"Over the years the priority given to health has waned and the health budget has been increasingly pruned. IMA on behalf of the people has demanded that the budget allocation for health should at least be doubled and health be declared as a priority sector," said IMA member Vinay Aggarwal.

He added that an IMA delegation would be meeting government officials to express their worries about the sector and also stress the need for more funds.

"Traditionally the health sector gets just about 2.8 to 2.9 per cent allocation of the total budget money. We as doctors working at the Centre and in touch with the rural condition know that there is an urgent need to provide more funds to the sector. Of the money allocated to the sector, over 90 per cent is kept out for establishment cost which makes the allocation of funds for other services minimal," explained Dr. Aggarwal.

In its proposal to the Prime Minister and the Union Finance Ministry, the IMA has also demanded that to boost health care services the Government should announce public-private partnership models to run tertiary and immediate care hospitals. The other proposals include promotion of the private sector and encouraging them to participate in all national health programmes, health activities be exempted from all taxes including service tax, health insurance cards be give to people below poverty line, an all India health service be created and specific concessions be given to doctors on income tax, specifically for those working in rural and backward areas of the country.

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