Critical care

The best thing about living in the 21st century has to be the rapid rate of change in every sector of society. Healthcare in India, in particular, has witnessed a significant amount of evolution. Right from advanced biomedical tools to unimaginable surgeries performed by robots, the healthcare industry in India is at its historical peak. However, along with the fast-paced advancements comes the burden of bearing the highest population in the world. An increasing global population puts a strain on India’s healthcare resources, while longer life expectancies put a lot of stress on India’s healthcare system.

With the health sector in India struggling under a staggering amount of infrastructural problems, there is a high need for our healthcare workers to be updated with the latest knowledge and provided with the newest resources. Historically speaking, healthcare in India has seen many government-sponsored schemes aiming to provide good quality healthcare services to the poorest of the population. The National Rural Health Mission was established in 2005 to address the absence of medical coverage in rural areas. In order to improve health care in rural India, this mission concentrates resources on rural areas and poor states with poor health facilities.  

Out of the current healthcare issues faced by the health sector in India, the biggest has to be a lack of infrastructure. Repeated insufficiency of hospital beds, a dearth of specialised faculty to treat major diseases, and high out-of-pocket financial expenditure makes for an impossibly stressed national health care system. Serving a population size of 1.4 billion, nearly 20% of the entire population of the planet, is a Herculean task in itself. Sustainably managing medical and human resources to fulfil the needs of the future generation should be the foremost thing on government’s mind at the moment.

The Union Budget made some important announcements for the ailing sector, which may revive it for now. The health sector has been allocated ?89,155 crore in the Union Budget, 3% higher than ?86,200 crore allocated in the 2022-23 Budget. Out of ?89,155 crore, ?86,175 crore has been allocated to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, while ?2,980 crore has been allocated to the Department of Health Research. The budget allocation is 13% higher than the revised estimates ( ?76,370 crore) of health expenditure in 2022-23.

One very significant announcement was on scaling up the infrastructure for nursing education in India. The Covid pandemic reminded all countries about the need to invest in building capacities among the health workforce. This move to create additional nursing capacity within the country augurs well for the future.