Outlay for health not up to my expectations: Vij

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij today said though the outlay for health department in the state budget 2016-17 has been hiked by 37 per cent, yet it was "not up to my expectations".
"It is not up to my expectations, though the state government raised budget by 37 pc for health," Vij said while replying to a question in the Assembly here today.
He said the budget for health has been raised by 37 per cent to Rs 3,916.94 crore for 2016-17, as against Rs 2,857.28 crore in 2015-16.
"I am still saying it (outlay) is not what I had expected and even not which was required. But we are considering making alternative arrangements. If the need arises, we will approach the World Bank (for funds)," he said.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala pointed out that only Rs 13 crore had been raised in plan budget for health. "How can you improve health services with such meagre increase?" he said.
Vij further said that as per a study conducted by him of government hospitals, he found that against the bed capacity of 100, as many as 217 patients have been admitted.

"How can we provide medical treatment? People abuse doctors and they are not thanked for admitting patients despite shortage of bed capacity. We should be thanked because we ask people to come for treatment despite lesser number of beds in hospitals," he said.

"But we will raise the bed capacity of hospitals," he added.
Expressing commitment towards improving health services in the state, Vij said 84 hospitals in Haryana would be accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) for providing national-level facilities.
An MoU would soon be signed. This project would cost about Rs 1,000 crore, he said.
The state government has taken many steps to improve the
sex-ratio, including the decision to give Rs one lakh as cash award to those who inform about involvement of a doctor in female foeticide.
If any innocent doctor gets caught, he also has the opportunity to appeal against it.

BJP MLA Umesh Aggarwal said sometimes, informers give wrong information to get Rs 1 lakh reward and raids are conducted on innocent doctors.
The Health Minister said while the previous Congress government had spent Rs 200 crore on advertisement of "No. 1 Haryana", but for a long time it kept allocating only two per cent of the budget for health department.
Therefore, the condition of healthcare services provided at hospitals became "pitiable" and patients had to face many difficulties.
But with the efforts by the present government, maximum number of people are being provided with improved healthcare facilities.