Bhubaneswar: With an aim to provide seamless, advanced, affordable and premium healthcare services across the State, the Odisha Government on Friday allotted Rs 16,048 crore for the health sector in the Budget 2023-24, which is an increase of about 27% over previous year.
“A total sum of Rs.16,048 crore has been proposed for public health care, which is an increase of about 27 percent over previous year and about 3 times of the allocation in 2017-18. It amounts to 7 percent of the State Budget. This includes provision of Rs.3,725 crore under Administrative Expenditure and Rs.12,031 crore under Programme Expenditure under Health and Family Welfare Department. The provision under Programme Expenditure has been substantially increased by 33% over the Budget Estimates, 2022-23”, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari said while presenting the Budget in the Assembly.
Major Provisions for Health Sector in Budget 2023-24:
AMA Hospital: Transformation o f Public Health Facilities through 5T
Health Care for All has been the guiding principle of our Government. It has been the dream of the Chief Minister to upgrade public health facilities to the standard of the best private hospitals. Towards this end, the State Government has introduced a new scheme under Health Sector -AMA Hospital- which has an ambitious target to transform 147 health facilities in a record period of one year, with an outlay of Rs.750 crore in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24. Under this scheme the Physical Health Infrastructure, basic patient amenities and service delivery system in the public health facilities, i.e. Community Health Centres, Sub-District Hospitals and District Head Quarter Hospitals will be upgraded. In subsequent phases, all the health facilities across the State will be taken up.
Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY)
When illness strikes a family, health expenditures can be catastrophic, wiping out life-time savings and pushing families below the poverty line. Chief Minister, with an aim to protect all vulnerable families in the time of illness, launched the path-breaking Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, making Odisha the first and only State in the country and perhaps the world, where all healthcare services, from OPD consultation to ICU and surgery, are provided free of charge to all persons, in all Government hospitals. Each year, poor families save Rs. 600 crore expenditure on drugs, which is borne under Niramaya. Similarly, the people of Odisha save over Rs. 150 crore each year on diagnostic expenses alone, as the same is borne by the Nidaan scheme.
In addition to this, 96.5 lakh families covering over 3.3 crore people of Odisha are provided with cashless healthcare in over 600 premier private hospitals across 17 States.
Till date, over 10 lakh families have saved over Rs.2,100 crore towards healthcare expenses in premier private hospitals. The House will be happy to know that about 50,000 families have availed cashless care of above Rs. 1 lakh per annum and nearly 1000 women have availed healthcare of over Rs. 5 lakh per annum.
It is an indicator of the success of the scheme that BSKY has sustained a record 97% Positive patient feedback over the years.
For supply of free medicine and diagnostic services at Government Hospitals and reimbursement of claims of private hospitals for providing cashless treatment to the patients (BSKY cardholders),provisionofRs.513 crore has been made under NIRAMAYA,Rs.140.00 crore under NIDAN and Rs.2,380 crore under State Health Assurance Society(SHAS) in the Budget Estimate for 2023-24.
Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission (MMSSM)
The State is laying much emphasis on creation and expansion of health care infrastructure across the State. In the past 6 years, the State has established 7 new medical colleges at Balasore, Baripada, Bolangir, Koraput, Puri, Keonjhar and Sundargarh, and 2 new Post Graduate Institutes at Acharya Harihar Cancer hospital, Cuttack and Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar. In 2023-24, it is planned to make the Kalahandi medical college functional, followed by Talcher, Phulbani and Jajpur in subsequent phases.
Due to the vision of Chief Minister to strengthen medical education, the State is confidently moving towards self-sufficiency in meeting our need for doctors and specialists. While Odisha was producing only 321 MBBS doctors and 254 specialists per year in the year 2000, the State now produces 2200 MBBS doctors and 826 specialists each year, and these numbers are increasing each year. In 2021, Chief Minister took a landmark decision to reserve 15% of the MBBS seats for students of Government High Schools. It is a matter of pride for us that, in the past 2 years, 415 students of Government High Schools have been admitted in MBBS courses, under this policy.
For infrastructure development, an amount of Rs.3,003 crore have been proposed in the BE, 2023-24 under the State Scheme Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission, which includes Rs.1400 crore for SCB Redevelopment Programme. Additionally, Rs.71 crore has been provided towards Diet, Rs.646 crore towards outsourcing of services for security, sanitation, laundry and maintenance under NIRMAL and Rs.110 crore towards Equipment in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24.
108 Ambulance Service
The 108 Ambulance Services was launched by the Government in 2012-13 to provide emergency transportation service to critically ill patients. The present Average Response Time of 108 ambulance service across the country is about 30 minutes. Keeping in mind the motto of the Chief Minister that ‘Every Life is Precious’, the Government has undertaken an ambitious target of reducing the Average Response Time of ambulances from 30 minutes to20 minutes. Accordingly, it is proposed to induct 236 new Ambulances into the fleet, for which a budgetary provision of Rs.250 crore has been proposed in the Budget Estimate, 2023-24.
Odisha Comprehensive Cancer Care Plan
To provide Cancer Care in Chemotherapy, Onco-surgery, Radiotherapy and Palliative Care to the people, it has been planned to establish 11 centers in 3 phases with an indicative estimated cost of Rs. 1,046 crore. A sum of Rs.211 crore has been proposed for establishment of Cancer Care Centers in the BE for 2023-24.
National Health Mission(Rural & Urban)
For implementation of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes,Rs.2,289 crore is proposed in Budget Estimates, 2023-24, out of which Rs.1,911crore has been earmarked for NHM and Rs.338crore for PM-Ayushman Bharat Health Care Infrastructure Mission(PM-BHIM) schemes.
Strengthening the Health personnel: No Health Facility without doctor
It is the goal of the Government to ensure that all public health facilities have required numbers of doctors and paramedics. Towards this end, nearly 4000 doctors have been recruited in the last 5 years alone, and over 5000 doctors are expected to be recruited in 2023-24. Similarly, the government has recruited over 9000 nurses and paramedical officers in the last 3 years and another 9000 are expected to be recruited this year. Additional provision of Rs.229 crore has been proposed under Administrative Expenses in the Budget Estimate, 2023-24 towards their establishment charges.
Assistance under Harishchandra Sahayata
Under the Harish Chandra Sahayata, the assistance is being increased from Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,000 for rural areas and from Rs.3,000 to Rs.4,000 for urban areas.
