New Delhi|HL
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her fourth union budget in Parliament today. Many announcements have been made for the health sector in this budget. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also mentioned many announcements made especially during the Corona period highlighting Covid-19 period in India.
Minister said that the Omicron new variant is a challenge in front of us today and the vaccination programme in the country has helped a lot in dealing with it. Giving example Aatma Nirbhar Bharat health scheme, the Finance Minister has announced an increase of 135 per cent in the health budget. It has been increased from 94 thousand to 2.38 lakh crore rupees. Along with this, the central government will spend about 61 thousand crore rupees in the next 6 years in the field of health.
The Finance Minister has said that now the focus of the government will be on health services from the primary level to the higher level. Special care will be taken especially regarding new diseases and the expenditure on them will be different from the National Health Mission. According to the budget, 75 thousand more rural health centres will be opened in the country. Testing centres will be opened in all the districts of the country and critical care hospitals in 602 districts. Along with this, the focus will be on nutrition and Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) will also be launched. The focus will be on sanitization in 500 Amrit cities. About 2 lakh 80 thousand crore rupees will be spent on cleanliness.
Tele Mental Health Programme
It is being noted that in this budget, it has been announced to launch National Telemental Health Program for mental illness from Corona. Explain that telemental health is the use of telecommunication or video conferencing technology for health services in the case of mental illnesses. Experts say that telemental health has been very effective for mental patients. Due to the covid epidemic, its need has increased even more.
Focus on North-East
The other highlight of this budget is that considering the health of children new pediatric and cancer hospitals will be set up in Guwahati and parts of Northeast India at a cost of Rs 129 crore.
National Digital Health Ecosystem
Simultaneously, an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be launched. In this, digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identification, consent framework and easy access to health facilities will be ensured.
