India to increase expenditure on health — will set up public health labs at block levels in all districts

• Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will increase public expenditure on health.
• There will be an integrated Public Health Labs in all districts at block level as the current lab network in rural areas is inadequate to deal with an epidemic.
• All districts will have infectious diseases hospital blocks.
  

In a bid to make India ready for future epidemics Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will increase public expenditure on health. For grass root healthy institution in particular, the government plans to introduce new investments.

All districts will have infectious diseases hospital blocks. Moreover, there will be integrated Public Health Labs in all districts at block level as the current lab network in rural areas is inadequate to deal with an epidemic.

"Public expenditure on health will be increased, we will be ramping up the infrastructure” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Health Reforms.

The government will focus on developing both hospitals and labs — including those which are privately funded. The government will also encourage research by introducing a National Institutional Platform for One health by ICMR. The National Digital Health Mission will receive a special impetus by implementing a ‘national digital health blueprint’.

“We should see the opportunity in this crisis. Health reforms and initiative have been put in place. Investments in grass-root level will be ramped up — clinics and wellness centres. Viability gap funding was discussed yesterday,” Sitharaman added.

The health reforms are announced at the same time when India reported the highest spike of 4,987 coronavirus cases in a single day, taking the total coronavirus cases above 90,000 mark.

In the last two months, the government has released ₹15,000 crore for health-related steps. According to Sitharaman, an insurance cover of ₹50 lakh per health worker was announced. India’s 33-year-old Epidemic Disease Act was also amended to prevent attacks on health workers.


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