Doctors urge govt. to allocate more funds to health sector-OxBig News Network

Medical professionals on Thursday (January 9) urged the government to urgently strengthen primary health centres, community health centres and district health centres in the State.

At a roundtable conference titled ‘A.P. Health Budget-2025’, organised by Praja Aarogya Vedika at MBVK Bhavan in Vijayawada, doctors discussed the importance of raising the allocation for the health sector in the upcoming Budget.

Identifying gaps in the healthcare system in the State, organisation president M.V. Ramanaiah and general secretary T. Kameshwar Rao came up with eight demands, which they said the government should look into before drafting the Budget.

Some of their demands include attention to preventive healthcare; strengthening Aarogyasri instead of replacing it with an insurance scheme; development of Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences into a postgraduate research centre; required infrastructure for AIIMS-Mangalagiri; development of the Cancer Data Centre at Kakani into a super-speciality cancer hospital; and regulation of the private health sector.

Dr. Kameshwar Rao pointed that the National Health Policy-2017 states that at least 2.5% of the GDP must be allocated to the health sector.

“The Bhore Committee (1946) recommended that at least 15% of the total expenditure of the government should be spent on the health sector. But, the State government spent 0.87% of the GSDP on health in 2022-23; 1.15% of the GSDP in 2023-24; and proposed to spend 1.24 % of the GSDP in the 2024-25 Vote on Account budget,” Dr. Kameshwar Rao said, adding how the expenditure on the health sector has been below the recommended level.

The participants also raised objections to the replacement of Aarogyasri with an insurance scheme. “In spite of its limitations, the Arogyasri scheme has been beneficial to the people. Converting the scheme into an insurance scheme denies healthcare to its beneficiaries,” Dr. Kameshwar Rao said.

The disease pattern is changing at a faster rate, the doctors noted. “Besides, the State lacks a specialised hospital for cancer patients in the government sector, on the lines of MNJ Institute of Oncology in Hyderabad. We do not have a hospital exclusively for women and children,” Dr. Ramanaiah said.

Members of the Indian Medical Association, NGOs, public, members of Taxpayers’ Association, leaders from CPI and CPI(M) took part in the discussion.