The union finance ministry is aware of the allocation for health sector is not adequate and in the revised estimates for 2003-2004, it has spent Rs 7,470 crore on health. In the budget estimates for 2004-'05, the Centre has stepped up the allocation to Rs 8,438 crore and in December 2004, another Rs 721 crore increased it. The Centre will step up the allocation to healthcare by two to three per cent from the existing 0.9 per cent over the next five years as promised in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP). The current spending for healthcare at 4.5 per cent of the GDP and the contribution of public expenditure at 0.9 per cent is just not comfortable.
Finance minister P Chidambaram while delivering the keynote address during the ninth convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) said that Union Government is constantly striving to change the scenario for the better.
The paucity of a health accounting system is a serious lacuna in the country's health service system, he stressed. "The need for introducing a national health accounting system, ensuring equitable distribution of available resources in the health sector and the efficient utilisation of funds is the need of the hour. The public health system is the leading agent to deliver healthcare, but the private sector will also have to bring in additional resources, both human and financial to make that happen. In order to spread healthcare to rural areas, the Budget in 2004-'05 extended tax concessions for new hospitals with 100 beds or more.
While the resources allocated to the medical care were not adequate, what was available to mental health is far less adequate. There should be a more equitable distribution of available resources and proper utilisation of the health services that are created through the public expenditure, opined the finance minister. "Mental health received special attention in the 10th Five Year Plan. The plan document has listed major components -restoration of health among individuals with disorders, early identification of persons at risk and protection and promotion of mental health in normal persons. The outlay for National Mental Health Programmes in the Plan was Rs 190 crore and in 2003-'04, only Rs 3 crore was spent. In 2004-'05, the allocation has been increased to Rs 30 crore. The Bellary Mental Healthcare model developed by NIMHANS is being extended from 27 districts in Karnataka to 100 districts all over the country in a phased manner, he informed.
Expressing concern over lack of trained manpower to treat mental disorders and neurological problems in the country, the finance minister asked NIMHANS to increase the intake for the courses on mental health to over come the shortage. He observed that there was an urgent need to augment the human resources within the shortest possible time. The Centre was looking forward to a major contribution from NIMHANS for the development of innovative projects to augment human resources gap in the area of mental health care. There are only about 3,500 psychiatrists and 700 to 800 psychologists in the country to treat a million mental disorder cases. According to a recent study by NIMHANS, nearly ten per cent of the population were in need of a specific mental and neurological care, he said.