Ahead of the Union budget, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley making several suggestions to improve healthcare delivery.
The medical fraternity wants six per cent of GDP allocated for health; more medical colleges and hospitals; new infrastructure in rural and remote areas; subsidised power, water and building tax for small private hospitals and nursing homes.
Prepared by IMA secretary-general K.K. Aggarwal and national president A. Marthanda Pillai, the draft also urged the Centre to declare health as a service sector and incentivise doctors who work in remote areas by increasing their salary, providing additional marks and reservation in postgraduate education.
Doctors’ associations
Meanwhile, doctors’ associations here say the State still has a lot of remote postings vacant. With the government setting up the Medical Recruitment Board, getting into government service has become competitive. However, in a few primary health centres in Tiruvannamalai, The Nilgiris, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam, doctors do not take up postings.
Filling vacancies
“We are actively in conversation with the government to ensure that the three to five per cent vacancies in some pockets are filled.
The State government has, in principle, agreed to consider increasing the salary component of doctors serving in remote areas.” says K. Senthil, president, Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association.
G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctors’ Association for Social Equity, while agreeing with the IMA’s demand that health should be declared as a service sector, suggests that the governments create an intermediate segment between commercial and domestic users in levying taxes and charges for use of essentials such as water and power.
“For India to offer free quality healthcare for all citizens it must definitely allocate more funds. Currently, it is only 1.04 per cent of the GDP, whereas even smaller countries like Cuba allocate more. The government should offer subsidies to doctors setting up small clinics and nursing homes with less than 20 beds instead of corporate chain hospitals,” he felt
Increase in salary and reservation in PG for doctors working in remote areas suggested
Doctors’ associations say that there are a lot of postings vacant in remote areas
