Public, private sectors need to jointly ensure healthcare: Sinha

Public and private sectors need to jointly ensure the 6 percent of GDP India spends on healthcare is spent effectively in delivering innovative healthcare solutions to the common man as the government has limited fiscal space, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Thursday.

"As far as the public health is concerned, we need to do much much more. The challenge is government spending which is 1 per cent of GDP, well below our peer group. We need to fix that," Sinha said at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-organised Health Summit here.

"Fiscal space is limited and that is where they we need to be innovative. What we need to collectively do is to come up with a innovative framework that enables to do what can be done with limited resources," he said

He said that public spending on health in India is 6 percent of GDP, which is close to the World Health Organisation recommended 7 percent.

The minister said the amount of money available in terms of fiscal space for social sector expenditure is far below what they need to be.

"You know that our fiscal space is limited, you know our state capacity is also limited because of vacancies and ability to do innovative things. So come to us with practical solutions, tell us what we can do, we are very open, we recognise our limitations, and we want to work in a collaborative fashion to solve this difficult problems," he said.