National Dialysis Program
Health sectors in India seriously need a lot of improvements as many of the health institutions still don’t have proper infrastructure to cure the patients. Hospitals, especially the district hospitals neither have large number of specialists nor have infrastructure to serve the patients who suffer from heavy diseases. Due to lack of proper care and amenities patients have to travel a long distance for appropriate treatment. It definitely increases the cost of treatment as it involves the travel cost as well. Looking at such situation the Union health ministry has taken a decision in favour of giving proper amenities to the medical institutes, medical stores and district hospitals so that they can properly treat the patients nearby, especially the emergency patients.
Budget 2016-17 and Health Ministry
In the Budge 2016-17, the health ministry has declared to provide enough medical facilities to the families and individuals who are suffering from several serious diseases. Most of these families are unable to go through the treatment due to lack of financial stability and sometimes due to infrastructure in their nearby medical centres or medical stores.
To prevent this issue in medical sector, the central health ministry have announced some of the national health programs that will be started in favour of millions of patients across the country. On 29th of February 2016, the health ministry told that the central will move up the budget and make sure that each corner of the country will get proper access to medical facilities.
Need For Health Programs
People know that our country has many hospitals and private nursing homes across the nation. But unfortunately there are only a few that have proper facilities and infrastructure to treat a serious patient. Not only that those private nursing homes and medical centres are way too expensive for a common or economically weak family.
Most of the middle class family, especially the ones who live in semi-urban or rural areas, are heading to government and district hospitals for their treatments. But unfortunately those hospitals neither have proper treatment equipments nor have better access to medication. For this people have to travel from one place to another for better treatment. Sometimes it is not possible for the patient to move; in that case they have to wait till the facility comes to them, which is a rare case. All these cases lead to the decision of starting up national health programs for these people.
Facilities in Health Sector
Under the current financial year budget it was declared that the union health ministry will start new schemes and health related programs in which people who are unable to afford the cost of treatments and medicines will get benefit of life coverage and medicines at lower costs.
- Health Protection Scheme – Under this scheme the government will provide life coverage of up to 1 lakh per family. The families must belong to economically weaker section or low income groups. Under the same scheme people who are above 60 years of age or similar will get additional Rs. 30, 000/- financial assistant for medical facilities and treatments.
- Jan Aushadhi Yojana – Under this scheme the government will provide generic and special medicines for the needy people. According to the scheme nearly 3000 medical stores with generic and special medicines will be opening across the country, especially in rural and semi-urban areas. People with low income can buy medicines from these stores at much lower rates.
National Dialysis Program
Another huge issue in the country is Kidney related diseases. As per the recent study the problem of Kidney disease is increasing day by day. As per the survey a patient suffering from renal problems and in 3rd stage, he / she need dialysis once or twice in a month. The cost of each dialysis is Rs. 2000/- on an average. Considering this amount yearly a person having Renal Disease spends Rs. 3 Lakh.
On the other in general the number of patients having Kidney issues is detected as 2.2 lakh. Every year the number of dialysis sessions takes place more than 3.4 Cr times in more than 4900 centres. Unfortunately the mentioned number is just a number as they barely meet the needs of the patients. Having such sensitive issues in the country, the ministry has announced a new scheme for the Renal Patients namely National Dialysis Program.
Features
- The NDP has been started to provide enough financial assistance to the hospitals and medical centres in remote areas to start dialysis process for the patients who are in need of it.
- The funds will be available under National Health Mission and the funding will be made through PPP mode. The medical centres, especially the district ones can register under the program and request for the funds to start the program in their centre.
- Under national dialysis program, the ministry will provide the equipments and latest infrastructure to the district hospitals so that they can treat the patients properly. Also the health ministry declared that many of the imported machineries can be bought for these hospitals at lower rates as the ministry will cut down the customs duty levied on these on emergency purpose.
Benefits
Under this program, the people suffering from Kidney diseases will get dialysis process in the nearest district hospitals. They don’t need to run from one place to another for treatment. The best part of the program is patients don’t need to do anything; it will be hospital’s responsibility to register under the program, request for funding, collect the funds and start the process on time.
The other programs like health protection and Aushadhi Yojana will also be benefitted for the people across the rural and semi-urban areas. People living under poverty line and also belonging to economically weaker sections will get much more advantages under these schemes than earlier times.
Funding
The funds for the National Dialysis Program will be allotted under the National health Mission Scheme. The entire budget and funding will be sponsored by the Central Government. The hospital authorities can request for funding and collect the funds through PPP mode.
| Scheme | Notes |
| Health Protection Scheme | Coverage up to 1 Lakh, Rs. 30, 000/- additional to senior citizens. |
| Jan Aushadhi Yojana | Opening of 3000 medical stores |
| National Dialysis Program | Dialysis process in district hospitals |
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