The Hindu Business Line : Bengal to seek Centre's clarification on allocation to health sector

THE West Bengal Government will seek the Centre's assurance on higher allocation to the health sector and also a clarification on actual budgetary provisions.

Dr Surya Kanta Mishra, State's Health Minister, said here on Thursday that he would soon meet the Union Finance Minister on the budgetary provisions for 2004-05.

"According to the common minimum programme of the present Government, three to four per cent of the GDP was expected to be meant for health sector. But, in the Budget we do not find reflection of that expressed intent," he explained at a seminar organised by the FICCI, Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management.

The Minister said the States have been clamouring for increase in allocations towards the sector for the last few years. A few previous Budgets had allowed less than one per cent of GDP to health sector.

Meanwhile, the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI), a grouping of 11 private hospitals in the region is negotiating with the West Bengal Government for private-public partnership in the tertiary medical services.

Mr Sajal Dutta, MD of Ruby General Hospital and President of the association, told reporters that AHEI has proposed to the Government for setting up a system by which patients in the government hospitals in district could get advanced treatment facility from any of the private hospitals at a subsidised rate in certain specified areas.

"It would be done mainly through telemedicine. However, actual surgery could be done at any of the specialized member hospitals of the association under the system," he observed.

To begin with, AHEI has suggested such collaborative effort in the area of cardiology. "However, before actually plunging into this unique project, which has no operational footprints in the country, we are carefully moving ahead. The grassroots level telemedicine network link would be set up by the AHEI initially at an estimated cost of Rs 1 crore," he added.

The plan does not envisage sharing of subsidy burden by the State Government but establishing of a smooth interface between the two different administrative systems will of course be a challenge.

"We taking care to lay down a detailed procedural path though which the AHEI members can take the responsibility and carry it through sans hassles and continue the new experiment in partnership," Mr Dutta said.