Saturday, February 27, 2010

Health gets a strong dose of funds

The acute shortage of trained medical manpower has finally received some attention. The finance minister increased allocation for human resources in health from Rs 62 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 323 crore in 2010-11. India is short by six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and two lakh dental surgeons.

The overall allocation for the health ministry increased by 14% — from Rs 19,534 crore to Rs 22,300 crore for 2010-11. Programmes to combat cancer, diabetes, mental health and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) also received a major push. While allocation for cancer research increased from Rs 77 crore to Rs 155 crore, the mental health programme has nearly doubled, to over Rs 103 crore. Cancer kills 50 people in India every hour while 7% of the country's adult population is estimated to be suffering from mental health problems.

Allocation for the national programme for prevention of diabetes, CVDs and stroke have tripled to Rs 90 crore. Pranab Mukherjee announced that an annual health survey to prepare the health profile of all districts will be conducted in 2010-11 to benefit the NRHM. Strengthening of district hospitals has also been taken seriously with the allocation going up from Rs 36 crore to a whopping Rs 200 crore. 

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/union-budget-2010/Health-gets-a-strong-dose-of-funds/articleshow/5622459.cms

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