WB needs to increase health spending over Rs.6500 Cr by 2018: IIHMR

Dr Ashok K Agarwal, Dean, IIHMR-Delhi, at the conference expressed, “West Bengal is a large state in terms of population where over 96.63 million people reside in rural and urban areas and over 1281.54 million people residing in the entire country. According to NSSO, According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) the average cost of hospitalization in India has risen from Rs. 8851 to Rs. 24436."

 

"In the state of West Bengal, 70% of the population seeks treatment in Government run hospitals, 30% of the households incur catastrophic health expenditure and spend more than 40% of their annual income on healthcare amounting to the rise in the out-of-pocket expenditure in healthcare. According to NRHM, West Bengal faces a shortfall of 1257 Primary Health Centers and 193, Community Health Centers. Overall the State faces a skill gap of about 4.62 lakh less health workforce as according to one of the reports released recently,” Agarwal said.

 

 

The Budget 2015-16 announced that the total spends in India for Department of Health and Family Welfare will be Rs. 29,653 crore. According to the report of MoHFW the percentage distribution of public health outlay on Revenue is 76.70% and that of and Capital during 2014-15 is 23.30%. 

 

The expenditure on Medical Education and Training in West Bengal is estimated to be Rs. 4 billion approximately and the medical health expenditure estimated on Urban Health Services Allopathy alone is Rs. 2 Billion. 

 

Apart from the public health expenditures the state faces some grave health problems amongst the population where 40% of children under the age of 5 years suffer from Malnutrition, Malaria and Kala Azar. 

 

The Government under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had granted a special aid for the Vaccination and increasing immunization against Japanese Encephalitis for Rs. 12 crore. Thus all these factors have led to the rise in the public health spending which is estimated to be Rs. 6500 crore by 2018. 

 

According to the PHFI findings for MoHFW, nationally the skill gap is approximately 97.9% across various health workforce categories where, West Bengal is witnessing skill gap with 4.62 lakh less health workforce. 

 

To overcome these health challenges, West Bengal’s health budget needs to be a little more ambitious to overcome the lack of public health and public health facilities and fill in skill gaps of huge vacancies in Rural Hospitals and other hospitals as well as PHCs, especially of doctors, specialists and nurses, overcome gross inadequacy of drug supplies in public facilities, poor maintenance of public health facilities and key equipment etc. 

 

"The state should also look at investing in Healthcare IT which is growing fast in the country," IIHMR said.

 

IIHMR Delhi offers two year full time Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Hospital and Health Management with specializations in Hospital, Health and in Health IT Management. 

 

IIHMR Delhi has multi-disciplinary faculty which strives to create an exciting learning environment that enables its students to tackle complex issues and develop creative solutions to critical problems.