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39-mn Indians pushed to poverty every year due to ill health: Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad
SME News, Friday, Oct 05, 2012 12:37:51 PM IST
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NEW DELHI: Around 39 million Indians are pushed to poverty every year due to ill health and financial weakness restricts around 30 per cent Indians to go for any treatment, said Union Helath Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the basis of a WHO report.
While addressing a Conference on 'Responsible Use of Medicine' at Amsterdam, Netherlands yesterday, the minister said India is embarking on an ambitious target of achieving Universal Health Coverage for all during the 12th Plan period, where all citizens will be entitled to comprehensive health security.
Earlier quoting WHO's World Health Statistics 2012, Azad said close to 60 per of total health expenditure in India was paid by the common man from his own pocket in 2009. The report states that about 47 per cent and 31 per cent of hospital admissions in rural and urban India were financed by loans and sale of assets.
Already, India has enacted the Clinical Establishment Act which will ensure that unnecessary drugs are not prescribed.
The recommendations of the Consultative Expert Working Group set up by WHO on research and coordination highlights the fact that very little research is happening in neglected diseases and intellectual property rights have become a barrier to access to medicines.
“We need to consider the recommendations of the CEWG and ensure that adequate financing is made available to these diseases so that the poor and the vulnerable do not suffer from lack of proper medicines,” he said.
