Healthcare in India should be cost effective: Montek

Healthcare in India should be cost effective and individual states should come up with innovative ideas to address this challenge, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here Monday.

"Health actually is not a central subject but a state subject. Only medical education is under the central government," Ahluwalia said addressing a conference on the future of healthcare here.

As a country, India has to focus on what is the most cost effective way of getting results in the health sector, he said.

Ahluwalia contended that the next decade can be the period when India manages to improve its health infrastructure.

According to Health Secretary Luv Verma, India's total health expenditure is 3.7 percent of the GDP which is "woeful".

"The quality of healthcare services suffer as there are doctors who are not adequately trained," he said.

Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of Apollo hospitals, hoped that the conference would throw some light on the needs of healthcare in India.

The two-day conference is focusing on the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, setting up of successful public-private partnerships in healthcare and meeting the manpower needs of the future by scaling up talent.

"Amazing progress has been made in healthcare over the last 30 years, yet barriers of accessibility, quality and cost persist," he said.