New health policy to stress on infrastructure development
Gireesh Chandra Prasad G I - New Delhi

The new health policy presently being drafted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will stress on infrastructure development in various states and will explore ways to provide coverage for the uncovered segment of the population, Dr C P Thakur, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said.

‘‘Some of the states have good infrastructure for health maintenance. But good many of them do not. The focus of the new Health Policy will be on how to improve the infrastructure. There will be specific measures to improve the facilities in State Medical Colleges and district hospitals.

The ministry is also preparing a new Essential Drug List (EDL) as per WHO recommendations. A designated six-member committee is working on the new EDL and it is expected that the new list will be in place within two months. The Medical Stores Organisation (MSO) will procure the drugs and it will be provided to hospitals. The new list will give attention to diseases like Anemia in pregnancy, respiratory infection in children, and blindness.

The other focus of the policy would be how to provide healthcare coverage to the uncovered population. As of now, the government employees are covered by the Central Government Health Services (CGHS), hospitals and people employed in establishments in the private sector are also covered by certain packages. However, the huge chunk of population is not. ‘‘We will discuss how to provide coverage to this section of the under-privileged,’’ the minister added.

The ministry officials are soon going to discuss the draft policy. Once the draft is prepared it will be sent to state governments, NGOs, various other groups associated with health maintenance and the media for comments. After collecting the inputs from these bodies, the ministry will compile the suggestions and the policy will be given final shape. A conference of all chief ministers will be scheduled after that, the minister said further. The draft policy will evolve after three to four sittings, the minister added.