Health for all, the time starts now

Picture for representation. Photo: Suvashis Mullick
Picture for representation. Photo: Suvashis Mullick
The announcement of 'Ayushman Bharat' in Budget 2018 is a clear and welcome declaration of action by the government. Affordable healthcare is the foundation for any just and equitable society, the vital blueprint ensuring a productive and prosperous life for citizens. In a country where health ex

The announcement of 'Ayushman Bharat' in Budget 2018 is a clear and welcome declaration of action by the government. Affordable healthcare is the foundation for any just and equitable society, the vital blueprint ensuring a productive and prosperous life for citizens. In a country where health expenditures push 63 million people below the poverty line every year, it has been an existential need for long. A starting point was needed. For people who could not access decent healthcare for so long, the time starts now. And it starts right in their village, within their community.

It's now the government's job to align the nation's health with state policy, call on the healthcare sector to help develop the framework progressively-so that the mission can be accomplished. First, those outside the healthcare loop require help at all three levels of care: primary, secondary and tertiary. The middle-income group, who can afford basic primary care, need help with secondary and tertiary care. These two groups need assured health security. The higher income group can afford private healthcare.

To make the system cost-effective, NGOs and private providers can assist at the level of the proposed wellness centres in every village. The asset in our village communities are the 1.1 million ASHA, or Accredited Social Health Activists. The government should "upskill" them as frontline health workers, whose job would primarily be to identify patients, do the triage and send them to the type of care they need: local clinics or district hospitals.

At the secondary and tertiary levels, for any gap in technology, manpower or infrastructure, PPPs should be the preferred model, while tertiary care should be governed by predetermined rates, covering all the health needs of a patient. By building these into the system and aligning everyone, I am sure we can attain 50 per cent more healthcare efficiency at no extra cost.

The author is founder chairman, Medanta-The Medicity

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