Quality healthcare system needed for poor, rich alike: Prez

Excelsior Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Noting that about four crore people plunge into poverty each year due to medical expenses, President Pranab Mukherjee today stressed the need for crafting a high quality national healthcare system for the poor and rich alike.
Voicing concern over the impoverishing impact of health and medical expenses on the vulnerable sections of the society, he said it was unacceptable that almost 80 per cent of the expenditure on healthcare by people was met by personal, out of pocket, payment.
“I am shocked to note that as many as 4 crore people of our country plunge into poverty each year due to expenses on medical treatment. Yet, we should remember that the health services for the poor cannot be poor health services. We need to craft a high quality national health system that is used by the poor and the rich alike,” Mukherjee said addressing 40th convocation function of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here today.
Asserting that health is among the topmost priorities of the government, he said the nation’s productivity depends on the health and well-being of its citizens. “Economic growth that does not go hand-in-hand with reduction in avoidable mortality and ill health is neither sustainable nor desirable,” the President said.
Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad in his address said that in order to improve the health care in the country and reduce burden of patients on AIIMS, six new AIIMS and eight big Institutes of Para-Medical Sciences are coming up in the country. He said 6 AIIMS were taken up in first phase under PMSSY and the Medical Colleges at these six AIIMS have started from the current session. 19 Medical Colleges were taken up for upgradation to provide advanced tertiary level and super-specialty care under this Yojna in the country. To ease pressure on AIIMS at Delhi, the green-field development of the second campus of AIIMS at Jhajjar ( Haryana) would provide state of the art facilities for teaching, research and patient care.
Mr Azad said some path breaking decisions were taken to improve health care system in the country and positive results have been witnessed. In order to overcome the shortage of faculty in Medical Colleges the ceiling on age limit has been raised from 60 to 70 years. For encouraging posting of doctors in rural area, it has been decided that additional marks will be given in the PG exams at the rate of 10 % for each year of rural service subject to maximum of 30 %. Again, 50 % seats in PG diploma courses have been reserved for Medical Officers in Government Service who have served at least for 3 years in remote and difficult areas.
He disclosed that in just last three years availability of MBBS seats has gone up from 32,892 to 44,302 including 300 seats in the new AIIMS. The number of PG seats have increased from 13,000 to 22,503 and 66 new Medical Colleges have been established raising the number from 289 to 355. Besides this, 269 new nursing schools have been given permission to over come the problem of nurses and ANMs, he added