What Budget Inheres For Health: From Manpower, R&D To PPP
The new health allocation has emphasised enhancing India's capabilities and resources, with Budget 2023 introducing several key changes in the healthcare sector, including increased manpower, research and development (R&D), and public-private partnerships (PPP).
The Union Budget, the first in the Amrit Kaal, announced the establishment of 157 new nursing colleges in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges. "Setting up of 157 new nursing colleges is welcome, in view of the severe shortage of nurses in the country. "However, the current state of existing nursing colleges must be evaluated for upgradation and better job opportunities for nurses to be identified to curb international migration," said Gautam Khanna, CEO P.D. Hinduja Hospital & Chairman FICCI Health Services.
"Along with the establishment of nursing colleges, a provision for paramedical workers and ancillary workers should also be considered. The focus on collaboration with private sector on R&D and innovations is a great move and hope it marks a new beginning for healthcare and pharma innovations in India," said Anand. K, CEO, SRL Diagnostics.
The budget also outlined efforts to facilitate the establishment of PPP-based research labs by announcing that facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams, encouraging collaborative research and innovation.This in turn incentivizes the pharmaceutical industry to speed up R&D initiatives.
"India’s healthcare infrastructure is operated by both public and private initiatives that most often than not, operate in silos. By providing access to facilities in ICMR labs to both private and public institutes to bolster R&D and innovation is a boost to public-private collaborations; this is imperative to leverage the strengths of both to ensure better healthcare for all," said Dr Kshitiz Murdia – CEO & Co-Founder of Indira IVF.
Focusing on "reaching the last mile," a priority amidst seven framework priorities called "Saptarishi," for the government, Sitaram delineated the government’s new mission to eliminate sickle-cell anaemia by 2047. It will entail creating awareness, implementing universal screening for 7 crore people in the age range of 0 to 40 years in affected tribal areas and providing counselling through collaborative efforts.
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), a genetic condition, is widespread among the tribal population in India, where about 1 in 86 births among STs have SCD, as per the ministry of tribal affairs. SDC affects haemoglobin (responsible for carrying oxygen in the body) in red blood cells, which can result in morbidity and mortality via distinct pathways.
"Sickle cell disease has required long-standing attention with the help of government-aided missions, primarily in the Tier II and rural belts of India. Awareness creation, setting up camps, and screening individuals for the disease is setting up a strong foundation for the Sickle-Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission 2047. This will help highlight the severity of this condition which has long remained unknown and ignored," added Dr Kshitiz.
The government announced the setting up of 3 centres of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) with the vision of "Make AI in India & make AI work for India" to have positive transformational impact across segments in the healthcare sector. This is accompanied by the announcement of setting up 100 labs for developing apps using 5G services across sectors, including healthcare.
"The main goal of these centres is to further understand and raise public awareness of these new-age technologies. These centres are expected to produce solutions that bring high-quality healthcare facilities to both urban and rural populations. The National Data Governance Policy's announcement is the right move to improve data security and privacy in healthcare," Said Apurva Sule, Chief Business Officer, Heaps Health.
"Investing resources in creating excellence in AI in India will also boost the pharma and healthcare sectors. The healthcare resources can be optimally deployed to provide affordable healthcare to the Indian population ‘making AI work for India.’
Collaboration between Industry & academia, visualised by the FM is the need of the hour in the pharma and healthcare sector," said Dr Bala Prabhakar, Dean Shobhaben Pratapbhai Patel School of Pharmacy & Technology Management (SPPSPTM), NMIMS Mumbai.
Dedicated multidisciplinary courses in the manufacture of high-end medical devices are another healthcare initiative in the Budget. The dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices.
"Due attention has been paid to improving talent in healthcare by introducing multidisciplinary courses for medical devices and skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, which aims to strengthen public-private health offerings," said Harsimarbir Singh, Co-founder at Pristyn Care.
"The low doctor-to-patient ratio in the country demands a focus on key areas, centred around upskilling caregivers, standardising medical procedures and access to hands on training with high quality medical devices. The call to action for leading industry players to collaborate in interdisciplinary research will result in the development of cutting-edge applications and scalable solutions. Medical faculty upskilling to adhere to the evolving market and industry changes remains pertinent," said Anish Bafna, CEO & MD, Healthium Medtech.
The budget introduces steps to enhance the ease of doing business, such as reducing 39,000 compliances and decriminalising 3,400 legal provisions, which are intended to provide impetus to start-ups. Acknowledging start-ups as drivers for the Indian economy’s growth, the finance minister has also extended the existing tax benefits for such businesses by one more year, till March 31, 2024. This is accompanied by an allocation of Rs. 9,000 crore for the revamped credit guarantee scheme for micro, small and medium enterprises MSME, to be launched from April 1,2023.
"More support and allocation of resources for health-tech start-ups to become effective would have been appreciated, as well as integration of digital solutions by such startups within the public health system would help them take their products and services further and reduce the burden on the system. In last year’s Budget, the government proposed providing up to Rs 2,000 crore as venture capital to create an ecosystem for health-tech start-ups to help them access capital and develop innovative products and services, but we haven’t seen concrete steps followed in the deployment." said Mr Gautam Chopra, Founder, BeatO.
The Ayushman Bharat National Digital Health Mission (ABDM) in Budget 2023 received 70.51 percent increase in its allocation of Rs 341.02 crore from the FY23 allocation, which was Rs 200 crore.
"Our nation’s digital infrastructure helped us ably manage the biggest crisis of the era – the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the establishment of centres of excellence for artificial intelligence will work to add much greater impetus to India’s digitization focus. Likewise, the 100 labs that will be setup for developing apps using 5G services across sectors including healthcare, will be beneficial in accelerating access to care, for all our citizens," said Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Founder Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group.
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