The Union Minister
of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Shatrughan Sinha has said that
investment in health should not be seen as an effort to control
diseases but should be seen as an essential basic tool for the
survival of mankind. In the time of globalisation when sectors
of development have become inter-dependent, healthcare is now
being realised to be an important investment for future. The Minister
was addressing a session on Healthcare and Pharma at Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas Celebrations, here today.
The Minister emphasised
the need for raising investment in health as envisaged the National
Health Policy, 2002. He said that the Health Policy welcomes participation
of the private sector in all areas of health activities – primary,
secondary and tertiary. The concept of equity plays an important
role in allocation of the public resources in healthcare. Because
of its reach to the needy, the primary and secondary healthcare
gets more than 80 percent of public resources for health. The
tertiary healthcare is an area that needs a lot of investment,
where Indian Diaspora can play a big role. The NRIs/PIOs can set
up super speciality, corporate hospitals and advanced diagnostic
centres. The corporate sector can collaborate with the Indian
Diaspora in establishing such modern medical care facilities not
only in metros but also in other cities. Hospitals providing such
tertiary facilities will also have the potential of attracting
clients from abroad for diagnosis and treatment, and will reverse
the trend of Indians going abroad for treatment. The Government
strongly encourages establishing such centres to provide health
services to overseas patients by extending fiscal incentives to
their earnings in foreign exchange, including the status of ‘deemed
exports’ to such healthcare services, the Minister said.
Stressing the need
to invest in medical research and development, Shri Sinha said
that financial resources as well as scientific and technical expertise
of the NRIs/PIOs can be of vital help in this area. Many premier
institutions in the country – both in public and private sectors
are involved in pioneer research, and collaboration from NRIs/PIOs
can be of great mutual benefit. Medical scientists of Indian origin
have been involved in advanced research work in many developed
countries such as USA and UK. He said that the Indian Council
of Medical Research is preparing a database of eminent Indian
researchers for meaningful collaboration.
Another important
concern of the Government, the Minister stated is to provide quality
medical education. NRIs/PIOs can contribute a great deal by strengthening
the infrastructure of government medical colleges, apart from
establishing new medical institutions. In order to make such colleges
self-sustainable, the management has been permitted to admit students
from abroad. The earlier ceiling of 15 percent of the admission
capacity is also being relaxed in view of court judgements. Private
medical colleges are also being permitted to regulate fee for
such foreign students in order to raise funds for their development,
he told the gathering.
Shri Shatrughan Sinha
also called for popularising the Indian systems of traditional
medicines in different countries. The inherent advantages such
as cost effectiveness of the products and less capital requirement
for manufacturing, in the growing popularity of natural plant
based products, the medicines of Indian traditional systems could
be popularised in foreign countries by the Indian Diaspora. The
diseases for which the western system of medicine has very little
to offer and the available drugs are too toxic, the Indian systems
of medicine have therapies available. However, such drugs may
require proper standardisation and quality control utilizing modern
scientific approach. Therefore, synergy of the traditional Indian
medicines and western scientific development can assist in producing
safe, efficacious and quality drugs at affordable prices. Medical
tourism is an exciting opportunity particularly from the point
of view of popularising traditional Indian therapies and medicines,
the Minister said.
