New drug regulator, manpower gap in focus

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad unveiled his agenda of reform for the sector today, announcing a special salary package for doctors and paramedics in selected village primary health centres. He also promised a central authority to regulate drugs , to amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, and to set up a National Council for Human Resources in Health, to look at manpower needs.

Identification of villages on a priority basis would form one of the short-term measures for filling the manpower gap in health, he said, while the setting up of eight institutes on the model of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and upgradation of 18 medical colleges, both announced by the previous government, would take care of some of the long-term requirements

The ministry has also set up a task force on the lines of the Yash Pal committee for education to recommend measures to reform medical education. Chaired by Health Secretary Naresh Dayal, it held its first meeting last week. Its recommendations are to form the basis for the formation of the National Council for Human Resources in Health, ministry sources said.

The Centre would provide funds to pay doctors and specialists hired on contracts in selected primary health centres located in far-flung and hilly areas or in difficult terrain.

Azad said states would identify these centres and report to the Centre and recruitments would be done in three months. The salaries offered for doctors posted in these centres would be almost double the normal pay, Azad said.

Ministry officials said of the 22,000 primary health centres that exist now, roughly 1,000 may be targetted for this assistance.

Azad refused to comment on whether the central drug authority promised in the first 100 days would replace the existing Drug Controller-General. Ministry officials said it will not be combined with the food adulteration department or modelled on the food and drug administration of the US.

Instead, the authority would be set up through an amendment of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The objective of this Act is to ensure all regulatory norms like good manufacturing practices, good laboratory practices and food distribution practices are enforced in an uniform manner. The Bill would also provide separate provisions in the Act to regulate medical devices, clinical trials and exports.

This would ensure high-quality drugs are within the reach of the people at affordable prices and would also ensure freer movement of medicines in international markets, the minister said.