‘Boost healthcare spending to 5 per cent of GDP’

Chennai

It will be encouraging to see the Government present a growth-oriented budget this year that sets ahead a clear direction to ensure long-term optimism. A few key measures that are immediately sought are:  

• Relaxation of import duties: Any increase in import duties will be detrimental to the healthcare sector. As much as 70% of the medical devices today are imported. The increase can be an impediment towards providing quality patient care in India. Reduction in import duty on medical devices would also likely reduce the overall cost of treatment.   
• Expanding and institutionalising the ambit of social health insurance: This will ensure that those accessing public healthcare facilities are able to avail services free of cost beyond those being provided by the national health programs associated with communicable diseases.  
• Strengthening the government healthcare setups and monitoring govt spends on healthcare: Mechanisms should be established to ensure equitable healthcare access to all sections of population  
• Providing an impetus to create Centres of Excellence (CoE): Trustworthy accreditation and innovative education will help bring standardized clinical practices in healthcare.  
• Making allocations in the budget for innovation, science and technology: This will enable the creation of public platforms to promote better linkages between industry and academia and R&D labs by encouraging CoEs for research and education.
• Increasing expenditure: The healthcare industry will want the government to spend more on healthcare. An increase in healthcare spending from 1.3 per cent to 5 per cent of the GDP will be a welcome step.   
• Benchmarking quality of care against global best practices: The govt should create a mechanism to review and adopt patient and healthcare worker safety guidelines issued by agencies like WHO on an annual basis in an evidence-based manner. Incentivisation should be considered for facilities following best practices including preferred empanelment with private and public health insurance agencies. 

The writer is Managing Director, Becton Dickinson, India & South Asia.

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