Healthcare industry sees the need for the Union government to recognise the fact that quality of healthcare delivery is non-negotiable. It is high time that the government focus on allocation of resources, set aside adequate funds for skill upgradation of not only doctors but also nurses too besides give considerable importance to emergency medical services

According to Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals, the budget 2018 must acknowledge that quality of healthcare delivery is non-negotiable. The public sentiment in India should understand that quality care demands heavy investment of capital, and more importantly, skilled manpower, both of which are in short supply, leading to an acute crisis in healthcare delivery. It is critical that all stakeholders – the public, Government and the private sector come together now to create a partnership of trust, which empowers the private sector to create and build capacity.

According to the National Priority Status for healthcare, the Government can signal its intent to put in place an enabling environment that will attract capital both financial and intellectual to stimulate the creation of high-quality capacity. Several approaches in combination can be used for this in public-private partnership (PPP) models by incentivising the private sector with carefully structured tax benefits, she added.

Dr. Anitha Arockiasamy, President, India Home Health Care, said that the government needs to have initiatives in place to spread awareness about healthcare at home , especially geriatric care, in semi-urban and rural areas as this is developing to be a highly needed service with the changing demographics and disease patterns.

“There is hardly any attention to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) which plays a crucial part in saving lives of people. The Government should invest in establishing skill centres which can train paramedics who are well versed in handling accidents and various other emergencies, as this will help the quality of emergency response services in our country. The government should allocate budget to develop technology that will help in reducing the time taken for an ambulance to reach the emergency. This can be in the form of advanced GPS technology, live traffic monitoring and updates, fitness devices that can monitor health and transfer emergency signals in real time. If a push is given to the EMS sector, it will, in turn help the healthcare professionals to save more lives,” said Manish Sacheti, CFO, Ziqitza Healthcare.

We urge the Government to adopt Universal Health Insurance at viable rates for all players, and to incentivise the consumers through higher tax deductions for healthcare expenditure and insurance payments. Zero rating of health care services and health care insurance premiums under the GST regime would be most important to ensure that the cost of care remains protected for the consumer, said the Apollo Hospitals chief.

Healthcare is the fifth largest employer and has the potential to generate 7.5 million direct jobs by 2022. Every hospital bed creates 5 direct jobs, and an exponential number of indirect jobs. But more importantly, it is the only sector that takes responsibility for the health of the nation, she pointed out.