New Delhi: Underlining the need for
universal health care, a group of experts today sought a
National Health Act to ensure equitable distribution of
medical facilities across the population.
"The National Health Act should be on the lines of the
Right to Education Act and in fact should have been brought
about earlier as health was more important than education,"
opined senior AIIMS cardiologist Dr Srinath Reddy.
Arguing that finances have never been a problem for the
government, he said, as compared to the subsidies being doled
out for industries and the petroleum sector, the sectors of
health and nutrition have got nothing from the budget.
"Even the PDS system has virtually collapsed as the
government was not sure who fall within and above the poverty
line," Biraj Patnaik from the office of the commissioners to
the Supreme Court, said during a discussion on the draft
National Health Bill here.
He favoured a food distribution system which does not
discriminate between the tribal, SC/ST and other poor people
and focusses on universal nutrition.
"We should not think about budgeting in the social
sector. We can see that the resources are enough," he added.
N J Kurien, a former member of the Planning Commission,
said, that public expenditure on health is just one per cent
and 70 per cent of the medical care is given by unqualified
medical practitioners.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 17:51