Members of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Tuesday urged a separate Recruitment Board to enrol MBBS doctors in the health and wellness sectors. They said various State centres and the national body of the Association could coordinate its implementation.
At a press conference in city, honorary general secretary of the State chapter P. Phanidhar insisted on a single-window registration, exclusion of small and medium hospitals from the gambit of unnecessary difficulties and a uniform set of standards for hospitals in the government and the private sectors.
P. Gangadhara Rao, national vice-president, threw light on the IMA proposal to launch a ‘Health First’ initiative that calls for a holistic approach to health care sectors with common man as focal point.Pointing to a document of health issues prepared by the IMA seeking urgent attention of the government, he said the key demands in the ‘Magna Carta for Health’ were increased public expenditure in health care, universal health coverage through government funding, PPP facilitated by not-for-profit institutions, emphasis on primary and rural health care and implementation of a structured universal three-tier reference system — primary, secondary and tertiary care.
GDP share
He also sought effective measures to ensure that there was no criminalisation of medical profession and quality public funded medical education governed by autonomous democratic regulation.
Dr. Rao demanded increased GDP share in health care from 1.2 % to 2.5 % in a time-bound manner, priority to primary and preventive health, social determinants of health and medical education and research for fund distribution. Universal health care, restriction of blatant privatisation of medical education, establishment of a Medical Grants Commission to fund medical education, co-ordinate medical universities and to ensure advanced research in medicine.