'Improving women's health will reduce burden on healthcare infrastructure'

Lack of a diversified and qualified workforce main challenge for healthcare in India

India should focus on improving women’s health for the larger interest of families, communities, and the country which will reduce the burden on public healthcare infrastructure and spending, said Bhubaneswar Kalita, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.

“Our main challenge is the lack of a diversified and qualified workforce and we must work towards improving the status quo as the workforce is the soul of our healthcare system,” he said at Assocham’s ‘Illness To Wellness’ Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The key objective of the summit is to initiate a dialogue on promoting and building a ‘New India–Healthy India’.

Anil Rajput, chairperson, ASSOCHAM National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Council said that India’s determined strides in the economic sphere can gain even greater momentum if the health of its citizenry remains sound.

“I strongly believe that when the workforce is healthy and capable, our nation can achieve its full potential across all domains and our dream of a healthy and wealthy nation can become a reality,” he added.

 The experts at the summit highlighted the shortage of trained nurses in the country, the need for policy to ensure decent pay packages for healthcare workers, reduce the healthcare burden of the country by allowing euthanasia, and introduce policies for mandatory insurance.

The experts recommended that instead of following a pyramid structure, the healthcare system should adopt a bottom-up approach, starting from villages utilising ASHA workers to better document and understand the healthcare needs of our citizens.

The ASSOCHAM Awareness Summit has a goal to promote widespread knowledge about various health-related concerns for the betterment of everyone’s well-being. The sessions at the event will delve into a range of areas, including healthcare workforce strengthening, nutrition, women’s health, mental health, sickle cell diseases, Ayush, elderly care, and the digital healthcare landscape.