HEALTHCARE INVESTMENT POLICY Govt woos investors towards private healthcare sector in J&K

Srinagar: As the public health sector is overburdened in Jammu and Kashmir, the J&K’s Healthcare Investment policy aims to boost investments in the private healthcare sector by wooing investors.

“In J&K, where the private sector is still in infancy and almost 80% of the healthcare facilities are being provided by the public sector, the overcrowding of the government health institutions has led to compromise in the quality of care. In government institutions, out of pocket expenditure is quite substantial as the patients have to purchase the medicines and other essential items from the market. This entails a huge burden on poor households,” reads a Healthcare Investment policy document.

   

“Poor health infrastructure is another area of concern. The paucity of resources for housing all the facilities in the institutions as per the Indian Public Health (IPH) standards as well as the regional variations within the UT also add to the problem. Primary health care is grossly underdeveloped with most of the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub Centres still working in rented buildings and without adequate manpower. The requirement of 1 bed / 1000 population as defined by World Health Organization (WHO) for low-income countries is much lower in J&K hence jeopardizing the equitable, accessible and quality health care delivery in the UT,” it adds.

“Therefore, there is a need for a larger investment, as the cost of building a secondary and tertiary care hospital could be as high as Rs 25 lakhs and Rs 40 lakhs per installed bed respectively. This means that to meet WHO standards of 01 bed per 1000 population, J&K would require huge funds.”

“This Policy aims to realize the UT’s obligation of providing quality and effective healthcare to its citizens and to take healthcare service to the doorsteps of the masses to ensure availability of the complete gamut of healthcare services in the primary, secondary and tertiary care sectors to the people of the UT,” the policy document reads.

A senior health department official informed that “J&K has received investment proposals of over Rs 3000 crore in health-care and medical education sectors, even as a much-hyped global investors summit to attract investment into health care setup came to grinding halt due to COVID-19 .”

“Despite the COVID situation, the health and medical education department took a lead in Jammu and Kashmir to attract global investment into health care setup, including health education post abrogation of Article 370 and reorganization of the state into two union territories.”

It is pertinent to mention that Jammu and Kashmir government has allocated 200 kanals of state land for establishing the first of its kind medi-city in the Kashmir division. The Union Territory administration has earlier approved two medi-cities for both divisions of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the government would also facilitate the fast clearance of project proposals through a web-based single window system allowing investors to avail the necessary approvals to establish and start their business operations through a single platform without any physical touch-point with the approving/licensing authorities. “An Apex Level Project Clearance Committee (ALPCC) will be set up by the Health and Medical Education Department for speedy clearance of the project proposals,” he added.

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