Health / HIV-AIDS Article Featuring Sanjay Prasad _ CEO
Friday July 17, 2009
‘Need to focus on PPP in health sector’
India Blooms News Service
“It is extremely heartening that the UPA government has declared healthcare as the pillar of social sector reforms. The government’s clarity in this regard was made clear in the Union Budget last year when it increased healthcare outlay by 15% to Rs 16543 crore. At the same time have committed to providing quality and affordable healthcare to the masses, it can be expected that outlays will again be significantly hiked in Budget 2009-10,” said Prasad, who is also the CEO and Executive Director of Mercy Hospital here.
“But apart from increasing government spending on healthcare, the forthcoming budget with the underlying principle of higher accessibility and affordability should focus on greater incentivisation of public-private participation in healthcare sector that will ensure deeper penetration of healthcare services through investments by private players in the sector. Towards this end, the National Rural Health Mission may be expanded to include weaker sections among urban populace and a well defined role for private sector healthcare delivery systems that are in place in urban towns and cities.”
Prasad said the forthcoming budget could also play a role in bringing down cost of healthcare services since there is a strong case for rationalization of excise levies and value added tax on medical equipment.
“The healthcare sector also looks forward to the government incentivizing research and development that will be aimed to innovate services and develop low cost delivery systems. A suggestion for this would be to exempt all imports for research and development from the ambit of customs duty and setting of medical technology parks along the line of such park that have already been successfully developed for information technology,” he added.