The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Healthcare budget may go up to 3% of GDP: Handique

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 27, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Healthcare budget may go up to 3% of GDP: Handique

Special Correspondent

Centre for Information, Facilitation and Grievance resolution launched

— Photo: R. Ragu

LATEST FIGURES: Union Minister of State for Chemicals, Fertilizers and Mines D.K. Handique (left) presenting a compendium of drug prices to A.K. Banerjee, Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, at a meeting in Chennai on Friday.

CHENNAI: The Centre has prioritised scaling up public spending on healthcare in a bid to improve the common man’s access to treatment, Union Minister of State for Chemicals, Fertilizers and Mines D. K. Handique said on Friday.

Launching a Centre for Information, Facilitation and Grievance resolution (CIFG) to promote fair practices in the pharmaceutical trade, Mr. Handique said it was proposed to increase healthcare budget from the current level of 1 per cent of the GDP to about 3 per cent.

The CIFG, which is an initiative of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), will be operated by Chennai-based NGO Citizen, Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG). National Informatics Centre is providing technical support to the online complaint submission and redressal system.

According to the Minister, the Indian pharmaceutical sector had chalked phenomenal growth in recent years at a clip of 12 per cent, which was faster than the rate of growth of the economy. The sector grossed an annual turnover of around $17.5 billion, the domestic share amounted to $11.5 billion and exports aggregated about $6 million.

However, on the flip side large sections of the population were not able to access healthcare, he pointed out. In the estimation of the World Health Organisation, around 65 per cent of the Indian population, or a staggering 650 million people, lacked access to healthcare.

Commending the CIFG initiative, Mr. Handique said mass awareness would heighten consumer vigil against unhealthy practices in pharmaceutical sector, whether it was marketing of spurious drugs or overpricing. The Minister pointed out that there were wildly varying estimates about the prevalence of spurious drugs in the Indian market. While a government-initiated survey estimate put the prevalence at about 0.5 per cent, an ASSOCHAM assessment put it at about 30 per cent. The global average of spurious drugs is at around 7 per cent.

“Keep prices under check”

Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj called for measures to keep prices of essential drugs under a leash. He pointed out that whenever regulators stepped in to fix a reasonable priceline, manufacturers devised ways to sidestep the mechanism by launching combination drugs at higher prices. As against the 18 combinations approved by WHO, there were thousands of combination drugs flooding the Indian pharmaceutical market, he said.

Mr. Subburaj said the annual per capita health expenditure of Rs.255 in Tamil Nadu was the lowest in the country thanks to the government policy of providing treatment, including medicines, free of cost at State-run hospitals. The per capita health expenditure national average was Rs.1,550 and in some States was as high as Rs.4,000.

A.K. Banerjee, NPPA chairman, said the organisation had issued “demand notices” to manufacturers for recovery of an whopping Rs.1,582 crore on the basis of various consumer complaints. He pointed out that NPPA had established a network of about 675 online information, facilitation and grievance centres in Delhi, North-Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir. The NPPA was in the process of expanding the network and also providing enhancements to its website, he said.

Arun Jha, NPPA member-secretary, said tie-ups with local NGOs had resulted in NPPA-CIFG units in Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Gujarat.

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

Tamil Nadu