'New AIIMS will boost tertiary care services'

Welcoming the Centre's proposal to to build two new AIIMS, medical fraternity today said it would reduce out-of-pocket expenditure by people in the country and provide a "huge boost" to tertiary care services in the public sector.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget 2017-18 proposed to set up an AIIMS each in Gujarat and Jharkhand.
"AIIMS welcomes the 2017 Union Budget proposals for the health sector, which are aimed at strengthening the primary, secondary and tertiary care clinical facilities, reduce out-of-pocket expenditures, and enable India achieve the sustainable development goals.
"The creation of AIIMS in different parts of the country would provide a huge boost to tertiary care services in public sector," Deputy Director of Administration, AIIMS, V Srinivas said.

Jaitley in his budget speech also said the government has decided to work towards increasing seats for postgraduate medical education by 5,000 per year.
"We will work with the state governments to take these tasks forward. The government is committed to take necessary steps for structural transformation of the regulatory framework of medical education and practice in India," he said.

The budgetary allocation for AIIMS has also been increased to Rs 2,400 crore from Rs 2,043 in the last budget.
For the Centre-run, RML Hospital too the allocation has been hiked to Rs 556.87 crore from Rs 492 in the last budget.

"We welcome the proposal made towards increasing the PG seats. There is a shortage of doctors and we need more quality doctors," Medical Superintendent at RML Hospital, Dr A K Gadpayle said.
Jaitley in his budget speech said, "We need to ensure adequate availability of specialist doctors to strengthen secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare. We have therefore decided to take steps to create additional 5,000 post-graduate seats per annum."
Indian Medical Association President K K Aggarwal said,
"The proposal to set up two new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in Gujarat and Jharkhand is a positive development. But we need an AIIMS in every state."

"Action plans to eliminate Kala Azar and Filariasis by 2017, leprosy by 2018, measles by 2020 and tuberculosis (TB) by 2025 will bring a major relief. Focusing on elderly health care, Aadhaar cards mentioning their health conditions will be issued and is a move in the right direction," he said.
The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), a global organisation committed towards raising awareness on non-communicable diseases, however, said, there should have been emphasis on non-communicable diseases too.
"Although health has been accorded priority in the 2017 Union Budget, non-communicable diseases that account for 53 per cent of the disease burden, remain a back-burner and that is disappointing.

"NCDs impact negatively in the socio-economic development of India and should have been prioritised. The country is on track to lose substantial economic output by 2030 as a result of NCDs and threatened by its epidemical nature. Despite this, the focus remains skewed towards communicable diseases," Chairman, PFCD, Dr Kenneth Thorpe said.
"What is required now is effective utilisation of these funds through innovative financing models such as a multi-payer approach and payment and pooling," he added.
George Institute for Global Health said, "We applaud the digital health village idea, which provides a good opportunity to take an integrated, evidence-informed approach to management of chronic diseases. It would be important to move from slogans to evidence-based implementation plans.