Healthcare experts want the government to draft the national healthcare policy taking into consideration the medical requirements of the citizens of the country, rather than succumbing to the pressures from agencies outside the country. This demand comes in the wake of growing say of the organisations like WHO, World Bank etc in the policy making process of the country by increasingly thrusting their agenda to be prioritised among other top demographical issues of the country.
The discontentment is growing among the healthcare experts over the mounting pressures by way of unwelcome interference by the global organisations in national policy making process. Such interventions sometime go against the best interest of the country. It is understood that organisations like WHO, UNESCO and World bank headed by western interest have been trying to arm wrestle and drive their interest while drafting the health care policy of the country.
A highly placed source from the industry said that while AIDs, HIV are serious healthcare issues affecting the population of the country, diseases like TB, malaria, dengue, diarrhea etc, are more prominent dangers posing immediate threat to the Indian population. The Source pointed out “So rather than first focusing on addressing the biggest threat parameters affecting us the previous governments have been focussing on issues that were seen more dangerous to the western world than for Indians. There is no doubt that AIDs is dangerous and needs attention to prevent and check its spread, however, steps should be taken first to address and eradicate immediate threat. We have already highlighted this to the government and are in talks with them to take requisite steps to address this lacunae at the earliest so that healthcare needs of the patients are not overlooked, while drafting the policy.”
According Rajendra Pratap Gupta a healthcare expert who was in-charge of preparing the BJP Election Manifesto along with committees chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, “Having an effective healthcare policy is one of the top priority of the new government as they understand that no government can sustain without priortising and taking due steps to address healthcare issues of the country. India is a huge country with dynamic health care structure, thus the governments main agenda should be to understand the countries disease profile and dynamics first and draft a policy that is for the people of the country than mimic a policy that is expected to be best by others. The national health policy should be Indian patient centric rather than as per the needs of the Western world.”