Budget aims to help transform healthcare sector

Hyderabad: The union Finance Minister among several healthcare initiatives has proposed to roll out an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem, which will help in strengthening the healthcare services within the country.

The increased investment towards health infrastructure and focus on a holistic approach to health is seen as a testimony of the commitment to building stronger health systems in the country, the healthcare industry believes.

D V S Soma Raju, Executive Director, SLG Hospital, said, “Finance Minister in her union Budget speech announced levy of “Health & Education cess” for the year 2022-23; but did not specify where this additional money would be utilised. I strongly feel government must directly invest or encourage more private investments in the healthcare sector to ensure semi-urban and rural locations receive quality healthcare facilities. Government must also encourage digital health avenues to spread operations across the length and breadth of the country.”

According to Dr GSK Velu, CMD, Trivitron Healthcare and Neuberg Diagnostics, Budget 22-23 was a balanced effort to improve overall economic growth. Today, the healthcare sector in India is at a much stronger position than ever before. Measures introduced in Budget 2022-23 will further strengthen the healthcare sector while focusing on prevailing challenges.

“The rollout of a National Digital Health Ecosystem will ensure that all segments of the society are able to access affordable and adequate healthcare in a seamless and efficient manner. Such an ecosystem can potentially make universal healthcare a reality for India.”

Further, the fact that mental health counselling and care services found a place in the budget is a testament to how far we have come as a country. Inarguably, the Covid pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the population at large. Thus, the launch of a National Tele Mental Health programme can play a catalytic role in both normalising conversations around mental health as well as ensuring that people are able to seek support for mental health related challenges.

“Though there was not much for the medical devices industry directly in the Budget, the industry will benefit from the Government’s increased focus on healthcare. The National healthcare mission outlay has been kept at about Rs 37,000 crores like previous year and this is a bit disappointing, considering the fact our healthcare infrastructure needs big boost in the coming years. The demand from all healthcare experts was to increase healthcare outlay in the current budget,” Dr Velu noted.

Vikram Thaploo, CEO Apollo Telehealth, added, the launch of the National Tele Mental Health Program which will include a network of 23 tele mental health centres of excellence with Nimhans being the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technology support is a welcome move by the government to augment the use of telemedicine services as well as provide support to people with mental health disorders.

Ravi Kunduru, founder & CEO, QurHealth, said, “It is pretty evident after the Budget announcement that our government is keen on transforming the healthcare sector by digitisation and with the help of technology. Promotion and setup of National Digital Health Ecosystem through digital registries of healthcare providers and facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health, will help us connect with the rural population of India and get rid of the clumsy process of keeping the health records in place.”