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the communication between the important stakeholders .
The central government has launched the Jan Aushadhi Scheme to make available generic medicines at affordable prices to all through Jan Aushadhi Stores ( JAS ). While focus on generic drugs , a huge populist measure by the government seems to be well received , it now demands scaling up of the project . Since the public health has been a state subject in India , the union government has maintained that under the National Health Mission ( NHM ), it gives an incentive of upto 5 percent additional funding to those states that implement policy and systems for free essential drugs ( in generic form ) to all those who access public health facilities .
To provide relief against catastrophic heath expenditure , the government has announced the launch of a new health protection scheme which will provide cover upto Rs 1 lakh with additional top up of Rs 30,000 for senior citizens in those families .
Yet despite a number of good steps , there are few issues of priority that have to be catered to on time . The promise of universal health scheme is yet to be realized but the government still has three years to go . While the ministers are tight lipped about its possibility as of now , there have been quite a number of suggestions including the one that a contribution of Re 1 should be taken from all the Indians to create a fund to drive it . Well we leave the nitty gritties to the economists .
There is hardly anybody who can deny that the primary healthcare in rural areas is still in shambles . While the union government has taken few steps but it has laid more onus on state governments . Health Minister , Mr J P Nadda says that to address health inequities , 184 high priority districts have been identified for
enhanced fund allocation and focused attention .
One of the key challenges India is facing today are : low public spend on health , a disease-centric approach over patient-centric approach , and a method of treatment that focuses on curative care rather than preventive care . If the government makes a policy shift to preventive care , longterm impact of diseases such as diabetes , cardiovascular disease and cancer can be checked at the primary stage of onset by ensuring timely diagnosis of patients .
As per Prof Vivekanand Jha , Executive Director , The George Institute for Global Health , “ Healthcare related issue do not find resonance in public conversation and debate . A few important issues are to try and find evidence-based models of innovate health care delivery , generation of data around the healthcare burden in India , development of innovative financing models , insurance reforms to prioritize disease prevention and legislative solutions .”
Over the next 10 years , one area where India has the potential to make a real global impact is in reverse innovation : bringing technologies
that are developed for resourceconstrained or remote healthcare settings in India to the rest of the world . An example of this is the development of portable ultrasounds in India , now used internationally .
The absence of a separate regulatory framework is one of the biggest challenges facing the medical technology industry in India . Presently , medical devices are governed by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act , 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetics Rules , 1945 . The current regulatory structure has its own barriers and limitations such as complex rules and guidelines , high capital investment , lack of active participation from the government and low penetration .
The industry associations in India have been asking for the department for medical devices , a separate ministry for healthcare products to act as facilitator and regulator and coordinated plan between central government and state governments to aid existing manufacturing clusters and new medical device parks . Creating a separate regulatory framework for medical devices will be the first step in addressing the needs of the med-tech sector .
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BioVoiceNews | June 2016