Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday presented the Union Budget for 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) in the Lok Sabha. Team FPJ spoke to industry experts from various fields. To gauge the reaction in the field of Health, we spoke with Suresh Kakani, Former Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health), BMC. Here's what he had to say.
The health budget for FY23 focuses on specific sectors such as research, setting up nursing colleges and elimination of sickle cell anemia by 2047. I have been talking about focusing on research as it will help us to tackle any pandemic. During the Covid-19 outbreak, I specifically instructed all the civic-run hospital deans, medical health officers and health experts to conduct as much research and document it to be published.
The idea of setting up a centre of excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for health, along with a strengthened impetus towards medical education, will accelerate the development of new-age, technology-driven medical solutions for better disease management and in encouraging start-ups to come up with innovative solutions in the healthcare delivery space.
Facilities in select ICMR labs would be made available for research by public and private development teams to encourage collaborative work. The government will also come up with a new programme to promote research and innovation in pharma through centres of excellence.
Meanwhile, they have focused on sickle cell disease in this budget and want to reach affected tribal areas with the collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments. Along with that, starting 157 new nursing colleges will help cover the shortage of trained healthcare workforce and lead to greater healthcare coverage of out-of-hospital medical services.
