Industry hails the move
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference held today announced Rs 23,220 crore more in the public health sector. Sitharaman emphasised the funding for short-term HR augmentation through medical students (interns, residents, final year) and nursing students, increase the availability of ICU beds, oxygen supply at central, district and sub-district level, adequate availability of equipment, medicines; access to teleconsultation; ambulance services and enhance testing capacity and supportive diagnostics, strengthen capacity for surveillance and genome sequencing. Besides, she announced Rs 1.1 lakh crore guarantee scheme for coronavirus affected sectors. Out of the Rs 1.1 lakh crore guarantee scheme, the healthcare sector will get Rs 50,000 lakh crore sector.
Vivek Tiwari, Founder & CEO, Medikabazaar said, “A step at the right time from the Finance Minister with a loan guarantee scheme of Rs 50,000 cr for scaling up medical infrastructure in the smaller cities and town. This will enhance access to the best of healthcare that is only otherwise available in the metros.”
According to Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, the move is encouraging and augurs well for a quick recovery of India’s economy. Encouraging the stimulus will ensure that we are prepared for any such future health challenge.
Pavan Choudary, Chairman & Director General, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) said that the move is a testament to the government’s intent to prepare thoroughly for the third wave of COVID-19, which as reports suggest, could majorly affect children.
Dr Ali Mehdi, Senior Visiting Fellow at ICRIER mentioned that from a short-term perspective, the decision does not seem to be driven by evidence, but rather by the desire to convey the impression that the government is preparing for a potential third wave, which would presumably affect children the most. It is not clear how expanding central guarantees on business loans for health infrastructure in non-metro cities would boost up health sector preparedness to tackle Covid-19 in the immediate term. This sounds promising from a medium to long term perspective, though, and is a welcome step.
