Healthcare in India

There are various estimates for world average for number of beds per 1000 population.  As per High Level Expert Group for UHC, it is 2.9 beds per 1000 population while higher estimates in the range of 3.5 are also quoted.  In January 2016 as reported by CBHI, about 7.71 lakhs beds are available in public healthcare facilities.  In addition, there are IPD beds in private healthcare facilities too.

There is unmet need of specialized care and large number of people has no or poor access to specialized care.  Unmet need and poor access can lead to mortality.  As per SRS 2015 death rate in India is 6.5 while it was 6.7 in 2014.

The Government of India has implemented PMSSY with the primary objective of correcting the imbalances in availability of affordable/reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country in general and to augment facilities for quality medical education in the under-served States.  Several new AIIMS are being set up and existing medical institutions are being upgraded under PMSSY.

The Govt. of India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005 to supplement the efforts of the State/UT governments to provide accessible, affordable and quality healthcare to the citizens.  The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has now been subsumed under the National Health Mission (NHM) as its Sub-Mission, along with National Urban health Mission (NUHM) as the other Sub-Mission.  Under the NHM, support is provided to State/UTs to strengthen their health systems including support for setting up/upgradation of health Centres on the basis of requirements posed by the States in their Programme Implementation Plans.  492 MCH Wings with bed capacity of more than 30000 have also been approved under NHM.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Sh Faggan Singh Kulaste stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.