The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rs. 3.7 lakh cr. needed by 2025 for healthcare facilities

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Friday, Aug 01, 2008
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Rs. 3.7 lakh cr. needed by 2025 for healthcare facilities

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India will need investments of Rs. 3,70,000 crore to provide just two hospital beds for every 1,000 people, from the present level of 0.86. A joint study by industry body FICCI and global consultancy firm Ernst & Young titled ‘Fostering Quality Healthcare for All’ said that the country would require 17.5 lakh additional beds by 2025 to achieve the target.

In the context of a huge shortage of qualified doctors, it said against the requirement of 7,00,000 doctors by 2025, there was a net addition of just 17,000 doctors a year.

The study said boosting human resource and public private partnership were the keys to achieving the aim of quality healthcare for all.

Poor healthcare facilities would not only have an impact on the quality of life of the common man but also lead to huge economic losses in terms of GDP, it cautioned.

“This will lead to huge economic losses estimated at 1.3 per cent of GDP presently. If the health care issues are not addressed holistically, these losses would mount to 5 per cent of GDP, a whopping Rs. 6.1 lakh crore by 2015,” FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra said.

Even when the government undertook positive initiatives and recognised the sector as priority in the 11th Five Year Plan, there was still a lot to be done, the study indicated.

While the government granted a five-year tax holiday to the sector to encourage private entrepreneurs to set up hospitals in Tier I and Tier II towns, there was an urgent need for rapid expansion of quality healthcare besides efficient use of allocations made by the government for health care, FICCI Health Services Committee chairman Shivinder Mohan Singh said.

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