"Last 10 Years Have Been Phenomenal...Endeavour Is To Push Life Expectancy To 85 Years": Niti Aayog Member VK Paul

New Delhi [India]: Noting that an acceleration has happened at the policy and delivery levels in the past 10 years in the health sector, Niti Aayog member VK Paul has said that health is an enabler of nation’s prosperity and that an effort should be made to push the life expectancy in the country from 71 to 85 years in the next 25 years as India becomes a developed nation.

Speaking at the ‘Media Dialogues: Navigating India’s health sector’ here, Dr Paul spoke of the government’s efforts to provide affordable healthcare and said Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) is a good scheme of private players in providing health facilities to the beneficiaries. He noted that package rates have to be fixed keeping in mind that the money for the scheme comes from the people.

Dr Paul, who participated in the session on ‘Challenges for India’s Health Sector’, said the government is looking for a health system that befits a developed nation.

“Health is essential for survival, and health is viewed as a human right. It is also enshrined in the Constitution and has been upheld by the highest court from time to time…Systematic efforts are to be made by all the nations including ours. Since Independence, efforts have been made to provide  health as affordable as possible, complete and of quality. In this journey, last 10 years have been phenomenal and has been the turning point. Truly transformative changes in the health sector have taken place, building on what the nation had achieved that far," he said.

“Clearly an acceleration has happened at the policy level, at the level of delivery, at the level of fighting a challenge like the pandemic. Indeed, we are looking upon a health system and health care outcomes (that) befit a developed nation. I would guess before 2047, because I believe that health is enabler of nation’s prosperity,” he added.

Dr Paul noted that when a country becomes prosperous, health of people improves.

“India’s health system and health outcomes have to be of high order. The life’s expectancy of India today is 71. When Bhore Committee in 1946 gave its report, at that time life expectancy was 27 years. Britain at that time had 58 years, that was the difference. Today, developed nations have typical life expectancy of 85. So one endeavor that all of us (should) do collectively that we will push this life expectancy from 71 to 85 or more. That’s the challenge for next 24-25 years and for that survival has to improve, prevention in health has to take place, services have to be accessible and we may have to make every possible effort to eliminate some diseases which are within our grasp,” the Niti Aayog member said.

 “This journey moving from a transformative trajectory that Prime Minister has given to this nation…it now can be truly exponential and that must be our effort,” he added.

Answering queries, Dr Paul said there is a huge scope to increase the footprint of private sector in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

“We need to work in this direction. Currently, the bed to population ratio is about 1 to 1.5 which means we have about 12 lakh hospitals, little more than the half are in public sector and about six lakhs in private sector. A developed nation, where we wish to be, has a ratio which is three time of this.

So can we do two times in next 10 years? How do we work to have 15 more lakhs more beds, significantly coming from the private sector, government sector will do its path but together we have to reach that ratio. The private sector must move fast in this direction,” he asserted.

He said states allocate the land and amenities, and the central government acts as a facilitator.

The NITI Aayog member said that private sector capacity has been built on a certain paradigm so far “and we are retrofitting it…”.

“We have economic analysis, health technology assessments in department of health and research. We are finding the model….My request to the private sector is to please consider this to be a partner. There are forums, people and we will sit together and lets incrementally come together to a point where it will be accepted with rules. When you build hospitals now onwards, keep in mind the PM-JAY paradigm. The time has come to build those hospitals which do justice to the public spending and yet give high quality services,” VK Paul said.

Yatharth Hospital CEO Amit Kumar Singh and Dr PN Renjen, Senior Consultant, Neurology, Indraprastha Apollo Hosipitals were also among the panellists