Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday allocated Rs 69,000 crore for the health sector and announced expanding government’s flagship scheme-Ayushman Bharat scheme, billed as the World’s largest government funded health insurance scheme.
The expansion of
Ayushman Bharat scheme will see setting up more hospitals in Tier-II, Tier-III cities under the PPP model.
The FM emphasised on viability gap funding for setting up hospitals in those districts with no empaneled hospitals under its insurance scheme-Ayushman Bharat. She said that proceeds from tax on medical devices will be used for funding government hospitals in tier II and tier III towns, while allocating Rs 6000 crore for the Pradhan Mantri
Jan Aarogya Yojana.
Launched in the year 2018 the Ayushman Bharat scheme provides a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually. According to the government as on November 25, 2019, as many as 114 million e-cards have been issued under the scheme.
Stressing on the shortage of medical professionals in the country, the minister while announcing the
Union Budget said that the shortage will be addressed by converting existing district hospitals to medical colleges through PPP mode. “There is a shortage of doctors in districts. The government proposes to attach a medical college with the district hospital in the PPP mode," she said.
The FM proposed to expand government’s vaccination programme-Mission
Indradhanush.
To overcome the shortage of doctors-both general physicians and specialists, she proposed a special bridge course to be designed. “There exists a huge demand for teachers, nurses, paramedical staff abroad.I propose a special bridge course be designed. Large hospitals will offer DNB/SNB courses to increase specialist doctors.