The Hindu : New Delhi News : AIIMS doctors submit memo to Prime Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

AIIMS doctors submit memo to Prime Minister

Staff Reporter

Increase in funds sought for the premier health institute

Memo submitted to the PMO by a team of 140 doctors
AIIMS budget for 2008-09 has been slashed by 38 cr.

NEW DELHI: Senior doctors at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here have submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister requesting an increase in funds allocated to the country’s premier health care institute in the Union Budget-2008.

The Institute’s budget for the year 2008-09 has been slashed from Rs.490 crore in the past year to Rs.452 crore.

The memorandum states that “based on its contributions to both health and higher education, that are the highlights of the current budget, AIIMS deserves a budgetary supplementation to keep up with inflation and enhanced services, and not a budgetary cut”.

The memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office by a delegation of 140 doctors including the Head of the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Dr. T. K. Chattopadhya, Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Dr. Subrata Sinha, and Dr. Anoop Saraya of the Gastroenterology Department,

According to the signatories, these were attempts by the Government to push AIIMS towards a revenue generation model that would seriously undermine the public function of AIIMS to “set high standards in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, medical research and mete out quality patient care”.

Said Dr. Saraya: “If the cut in funds was enforced due to non-utilisation of funds by the Institute, then it is the senior administrative staff that should be held answerable rather than subjecting poor patients to the distinct disadvantages of a reduction in the budget.”

“The Institute combines the equity inherent in a publicly funded hospital with academic excellence. It is a unique combination and no other institution in India is anywhere close to replicating this model. It would be a pity if AIIMS would now be strangulated by slashing budgetary support, especially when private health care has received a huge increase in subsidy and benefits,” the memorandum stated.

The paltry sum allocated for health defies the Government’s commitment to the National Common Minimum Programme and the National Health Policy-2002 to increase expenditure on health to 3 per cent of the GDP. Including the increase of 15 per cent over the previous year’s allocation, the total health budget would amount to barely 1 per cent of the GDP as against the WHO recommendation of spending at least 5 per cent for developing countries, the memorandum added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi