Budget for health spending: Gujarat not in top 10

AHMEDABAD: A data tabled in Rajya Sabha on July 20 gave a snapshot of the budget spending of states for health & family welfare from the central allocation of National Health Mission (NHM). The figures indicate that Gujarat’s health spending increased by 18% from 2017-18 to 2020-21 – from Rs 1,593 crore to Rs 1,894 crore.

Comparing the figure with other states, in the same period Odisha increased the budget spending by 55%, Maharashtra 51%, Rajasthan 50% and Madhya Pradesh 47%. Among the major states, only Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were behind Gujarat. Year-on-year increase was just 1.6% from 2019-20 to 2020-21.
The RS data further revealed that 93% of the funds in 2020-21 went to the rural areas (National Rural Health Mission) and remaining 7% to urban areas (National Urban Health Mission). The year was the most crucial for the health spending due to the pandemic that swept across the region and caused high mortality in several cities including Ahmedabad and Surat.
“Analysis of the funds and its spending is important as the state’s own contribution for the department has remained low,” said a city-based public health expert. “Despite the Government of India’s directives of spending at least 8% of the total budget on health sector, our contribution hovers around 5%.”
TOI had earlier reported that National Health Policy 2017 categorically instructed the states to increase health expenditure as a percentage of GDP from existing 1.15% to 2.5%. In case of Gujarat, the figure remained around 0.6% of the GDP.
For the pandemic year and preparation of the possible third wave, the state government aims to fill up vacant positions, improve physical healthcare infrastructure, procure oxygen and medicines, and also invest in on-ground surveillance. Senior health department officials were not available to comment on how the current allocation matches the requirements.
“In majority of the spots, the existing infrastructure was leveraged for the Covid treatment, or makeshift hospitals were made in cities like Ahmedabad. Is the preparation for the third wave going to be different from the first two?” asked an expert.