The Hindu Business Line : `Increase budgetary support for healthcare'

An NGO-civil society forum has called for a co-ordinated effort of public, private sectors and NGOs to increase budgetary allocations for health in developing countries, as poor investments in health drove people into impoverishment.

Ill health also resulted in reduced levels of productivity.

Addressing the first session at the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here on Wednesday, Dr David B. Evans, Director (Department of Health Systems Financing) of World Health Organisation, said many countries spent less than $50 per capita on health.

Several ADB member countries, including India, and almost the whole of Africa dominated the list.

Referring to a study, he said one dollar spent on a child's nutrition yielded $3 in additional revenues later on.

"Technologies and solutions are available out there. But they are not reaching those who need them," he said.

Monopolistic structures

Mr Gopi Gopalakrishnan, Country Director of DKT International (Vietnam), pointed out that monopolistic structures (public sector) rarely delivered quality care.

He said the public sector mechanism never cared for measuring outputs. "If you can't monitor, you can't monitor," he said.

He observed that the system lacked a strong system-driven management component and proved to be inefficient.

While pointing out that the country spent $10 billion in private doctors, he regretted that the vast resources were not being utilised properly.

The private sector had a vast pool of five lakh doctors, 1.25 million rural practitioners and 7-12 million shops. But it was highly unorganised.

Despite high visibility, the contribution of NGOs to service delivery was negligible. There were over 1.3 million NGOs in India but contribute less than 0.7 per cent of total healthcare needs. He said there was a need to bring all these four components together to leverage their strengths.

Ms Nemat Hajebhoy of Aga Khan Foundation, said if the country spent on water and sanitation in rural areas, it would help women save up to six working months. They usually spent 1-3 hours every day in fetching water, not to speak of their woes in attending to nature calls.

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