News & Events

The Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has taken strong exception to the government’s move for outright Public Private Participation (PPP) in the health sector by December. In a statement released here Dr L S Chawla President IDPD said that the health indicators in our country are one among the lowest in the world. Even our South Asian neighbors have better health indicators in many sectors even though their overall economic development is less than us. The government has already slashed its health budget by 20% for the current fiscal year. There is need for minimum of 6% of public health spending in contrast to 1.04% at present. The government’s move to slash the public health expenditure and adopt PPP model will further lead to increase in the out of pocket expenditure on health by the people and thus further denying them the health care facilities and impoverish them. Dr Arun Mitra General Secretary said that worldwide experience has shown that wherever the government’s health spending is more the health indices are better. The emphasis on PPP in the medical education will further deteriorate the standards of education as already the system of admission in majority of the private colleges is totally commercial & fraudulent and training is sub standard with ghost faculty and ghost patients. The government must review its decision and instead increase public health spending.