How will we fix the imbalance in the nation's healthcare infrastructure?

Imbalance in the growth of medical colleges and institutions in the country is affecting the delivery of health care to people, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in the Lok Sabha on Friday. 'There is imbalanced growth of medical colleges and institutions and availability of medical specialists in the country is affecting the delivery of health care to people across the country,' the minister said in a written reply.

He said that the health ministry has reviewed regulations of the Medical Council of India for setting up of medical colleges and amendments have been made to address the geographic and rural-urban imbalance of medical institutions.

In hilly areas and notified tribal areas, North-eastern states and union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep, medical colleges can be established in two separate pieces of land at a distance of not more than 10 km, he said.

Harsh Vardhan also added that there is a centrally sponsored scheme for establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district hospitals.

Union Budget 2014-15 will it fix the healthcare scenario?

India hiked its health budget by 27 percent in 2014-15 to Rs35,163 crore (Rs351.63 billion), with special focus on improving affordable healthcare for all. The government also hiked the allocation for AYUSH Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Sidddha and Homoeopathy by 36 percent. The department under the health ministry was allocated Rs1,272.15 crore compared to Rs935.75 crore in the last fiscal. With the focus on health research, the government also allocated more funds for it.

As the health ministry has a separate department for medical research, it was allocated Rs1,017 crore compared to Rs880 crore in the last fiscal a jump of 15 percent. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget speech said the NDA government wants to move towards 'Health for All' and to fulfil this aim on priority by providing free drug service and free diagnostic services. 'In keeping with the government's focus on improving affordable healthcare and to augment the transfer of technology for better health care facilities in rural India, 15 Model Rural Health Research Centres will be set up in the states, which will take up research on local health issues concerning rural population,' he said.

Last year's budget for the health ministry was Rs27,531 crore (Rs275.31 billion). Jaitley also said the government will set up four new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the country with a corpus of Rs500 crore. 'It is a matter of great satisfaction that all the six new AIIMS at Jodhpur, Bhopal, Patna, Rishikesh, Bhubaneswar and Raipur, which are part of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, have become functional.' 'A plan to set up four more AIIMS-like institutions in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Poorvanchal in Uttar Pradesh is under consideration. I propose to set aside a sum of Rs500 crore for this.'

The idea to have AIIMS-like institutes was approved by the Manmohan Singh government in 2006. It was proposed in 2003 by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government. The aim is to provide good medical facilities at affordable rates in cities that don't have such medicare and also ensure quality medical education. The AIIMS in Delhi has emerged as north India's best government hospital with over 1,800 beds. It treats over 9,000 people daily. He also said that to achieve universal access to early quality diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis patients, two National Institutes of Ageing will be set up at AIIMS in New Delhi and at the Madras Medical College in Chennai. The finance minister said a national level research and referral institute for higher dental studies will be set up in one of the existing dental institutions.

He said that at present 58 government medical colleges have been approved. It is also proposed to add 12 more government medical colleges. In addition, dental facilities would also be available in all the hospitals. He said that for the first time, the government will provide central assistance to strengthen the states' Drug Regulatory and Food Regulatory Systems by creating new drug testing laboratories and strengthening the 31 existing state laboratories. In the budget, medical education training and research got the lion's share of Rs51,10.8 crore. Last year, the allotment was Rs46,37.51 crore. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government also laid emphasis on improving and upgrading public health so that people get better medical facilities. As India has 2.39 million HIV/AIDS patients, a separate department was created to control its spread and to form policies. The department was allotted Rs1,785 crore compared to Rs1,500 crore a jump of 19 percent.