Health Budget allocation up by 13%

The Union Budget-2023-24 is different in many aspects for the health sector as while presenting her full Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on stressed establishing 157 new nursing colleges, encouraging research and development by the pharmaceuticals industry and promotion of medical research by the private and public sectors and a mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047 by allocating Rs 89,155 crore, which is around 13 percent more from the last fiscal allocation of Rs 79,145 crore.

As per the budget announcements, all 157 new nursing colleges will be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.

“A mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047 will be launched. It will entail awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments,” the FM said.

The finance minister further said that facilities in select Indian Council of Medical Research laboratories will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty members and private sector research and development teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.

The budget allocation for the AYUSH ministry has been increased from Rs 2,845.75 crore to Rs 3,647.50 crore, recording a 28 percent increase.

Out of Rs 89,155 crore, Rs 86,175 crore has been allocated to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, while Rs 2,980 crore to the Department of Health Research.

From the new financial year, the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) has been bifurcated into two sub-schemes, the first being the PMSSY itself and the second one is the establishment expenditure of 22 new AIIMS for which Rs 6,835 crore has been allocated.

The budget allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana for 2023-2024 is Rs 3,365 crore.

Among these central sector schemes, the budget allocation for the National Health Mission has been increased from Rs 28,974.29 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 29,085.26 crore in 2023-24, and for Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PM-JAY), it has been hiked from Rs 6,412 crore to Rs 7,200 crore.

The allocation for the National Digital Health Mission – NHM has been increased from Rs 140 crore to Rs 341.02 crore.

For the National Tele Mental Health Programme, the budget allocation has been increased from Rs 121 crore to Rs 133.73 crore. The budget allocation for autonomous bodies goes up from Rs 10,348.17 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 17,322.55 crore in 2023-24.

Among the autonomous bodies, the allocation for AIIMS, New Delhi has been reduced from Rs 4,400.24 crore to Rs 4,134.67 crore. The allocation for ICMR has been increased from Rs 2,116.73 crore to Rs 2,359.58 crore.

Hailing the budget, Probal Ghosal, who is executive chairman of Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, said, “The proposal to establish 157 new nursing colleges is a welcome move as several new hospitals come up every year, but there is a dearth of skilled healthcare workers. So, this move will help to fill this gap, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.”