Question : PUBLIC HEALTHCARE FACILITIES

(a) whether the Government aims to move towards a new healthcare regime in which primary care will be offered free to all through public facilities, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether any criteria has been fixed for getting such assistance, if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government proposes to buy secondary and tertiary services from public healthcare facilities, if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government also proposes to involve private players to a limited extent, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and

(e) the other steps taken/being taken by the Government for effective implementation of primary healthcare facilities to economically weaker sections of the society?

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI JAGAT PRAKASH NADDA)

(a): There is no such proposal to move to a new health care regime. Public health being a state subject, under the National Health Mission (NHM), financial support is provided to states to strengthen their healthcare system including for provision of healthcare services and providing free primary care to all those who access public health facilities based on the requirements projected by them in their Programme Implementation Plans. States are however, required to provide services free of cost where support is being provided by the Central Government under the National Programmes. Provision of comprehensive primary care being a priority area, the Central government has been encouraging states to strengthen their primary healthcare delivery system.

(b): Does not arise in view of (a).

(c): Public health being a state subject, under the National Health Mission (NHM), support is provided to States/UTs including for provision of secondary care services free or at affordable cost to those who access public health faci- lities. Under the Rashtriya Swasthya BimaYojana (RSBY) secondary care services are purchased from public and private health facilities that are empanelled under the scheme.

(d): The 12th plan document envisages that health services should be primarily provisioned through the Public Health System and supplemented by not-for-profit and private sector wherever there are gaps.

(e): To ensure equitable health care and to bring about sharper improvements in health outcomes, the bottom 25% of the districts in every State according to the ranking of districts based on composite health index have been identified as High Priority Districts (HPDs). All Left Wing Effected districts and districts with majority tribal population, whose composite health index is below 50% are also categorised as HPDs. These HPDs receive higher per capita funding, enhanced monitoring and focussed supportive supervision and encouraged to adopt innovative approaches to address their peculiar health challenges. Technical support from all sources is being harmonised and aligned with NHM particularly in these districts to support imp- lementation of key priority intervention packages.