Know your Ministry - No. 27 - Health and Family Welfare

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MH & FW) is headed by a Cabinet rank Minister assisted by a Minister of State. Department of Health and Family Welfare and Department of Health Research function under the Ministry as two broad Departments.

Divisions under MH & FW : Vector Borne Diseases (VBD),Blindness Control, Bureau of Planning, Cancer Control Programme, Chief Controller of Accounts(CCA),Central Design Bureau, Central Health Services(CHS), Drugs Food Quality control division, Emergency Medical Relief, IC & IH, Immunization, Medical Education, Medical Tourism, Mental Health Division, National Programme For Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke(NPCDCS), National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly NPHCE, National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD), National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, NGO Division, National Health Mission(NHM) Finance, NHM policy & Planning,  NUHM, Infrastructure & HR Division, e-Health & Telemedicine, Medical Education Policy - II, Dental, Nursing, Allied Health Sciences(AHS), Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), Pre-Natal Diagnostic Tests(PNDT),Revised National Tuberculosis Programme,  OP & Nirodh Marketing and Drug De-Addiction Programme

Department of Health Research (DHR) was created to bring modern health technologies to the people through research and innovations related to diagnosis, treatment methods and vaccines for prevention; to translate them into products and processes and, in synergy with concerned organizations, introduce these innovations into public health system.

The following functions have been allocated to the Department of Health Research:

• Promotion and co-ordination of basic, applied and clinical research including clinical trials and operational research in areas related to medical, health, biomedical and medical profession and education through development of infrastructure, manpower and skills in cutting edge areas and management of related information thereto.
• Promote and provide guidance on research governance issues, including ethical issues in medical and health research.
• Inter-sectoral coordination and promotion of public- private – partnership in medical, biomedical and health research related areas.
• Advanced training in research areas concerning medicine and health, including grant of fellowships for such training in India and abroad.
• International co-operation in medical and health research, including work related to international conference in related areas in India and abroad.
• Technical support for dealing with epidemics and natural calamities.
• Investigation of outbreaks due to new and exotic agents and development of tools for prevention.
• Matters relating to scientific societies and associations, charitable and religious endowments in medicine and health research areas.
• Coordination between organization and institutes under the Central and State Governments in areas related to the subjects entrusted to the Department and for the promotion of special studies in medicine and health.
• Administering and monitoring of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE

Reports, Policy, Statistics, Result Framework Document (RFD), Budget, Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), etc.

GENERAL CRITICISM IN PUBLIC DOMAIN

• Failure to attain highest possible level of Health and well-being for each and every citizen.
• Lack of clear policy for engagement of Preventive & Promotive Health Care
• Citizens deprived of access to good quality health services without any financial hardship.
• Non-Availability of quality healthcare on equitable, accessible and affordable basis across regions and communities.
• Neglect of under-served population and marginalised groups to avail the best of Health care
• Bottlenecks faced to establish a comprehensive primary health care delivery system.
• Failure to establish a well-functioning linkages with secondary and tertiary health care delivery system.
• Non establishment of world class medical training infrastructure capacity for provision human resources for health (medical, paramedical and managerial) having adequate skill mix at all levels.
• Failure to regulate health service delivery and promote rational use of pharmaceuticals in the country. 

CHALLENGES BEFORE THE MINISTRY

• Lack of General Health Awareness and Hygiene amongst citizens due to  low educational status, poor functional literacy, low accent on education within the healthcare system, and low priority for health in the population.
• Improper Access to healthcare due to lack of availability, supply, and utilization of healthcare services as being factors in determining access. Barriers to access in the financial, organizational, social and cultural domains due to restrictions and limited utilization of services.
• Lack of basic medical infrastructural facilities such as beds, wards, toilets, drinking water facility, clean labor rooms for delivery, and regular electricity.
• Absence or Deficient manpower resources resulting in crisis in healthcare to address all the issues related to professional trained and competent healthcare worker due to absence of a comprehensive and integrated health manpower policy dealing with health manpower requirement projection, manpower production, training, recruitment, career development, supportive supervision, skill enhancement, postings in underserved areas, retention and transfers, etc.
• The public sector offers healthcare at low or no cost but is perceived as being unreliable, of indifferent quality and generally is not the first choice, unless one cannot afford private care due to non-affordability of the cost of healthcare.
• Lack of Accountability in adherence to standard procedures and processes in medical practices by which one party justifies and takes responsibility for its activities.
• Deficiency in Medical infrastructure especially in rural and urban health infrastructure poor standards, unavailability or ignorance of information for accessing modern health care facilities, and lack of purchasing power affecting urban healthcare in the country.
• Unmanageable patient load due to poor Doctor-Population Ratio. Secondary or tertiary level public hospital in bigger cities is today bursting at seams due to a heavy rush of patients due to  huge unplanned increase of Indian cities has resulted in urbanization of rural poverty causing expansion of slums and marginal populations starved of health and other basic amenities. equivocal quality of services.
• Poor quality of Hospitals which has resulted in outsourcing of many services in public hospitals such as security, laundry, cleaning, kitchen services, and, in later stages, even the diagnostic and curative facilities on public-private partnership mode causing huge impact on the cost of Health Care.
• Lack of any Medical Breakthroughs or Inventions achieved under Medical Research to combat life threatening diseases for many years that resulted in reverting to our indigenous or Traditional Medical concepts.

WAY FORWARD

• Reorganize the Ministry integrating all Institutions and Quasi-Government bodies besides merging into five independent apex bodies or Departments as Medical Diagnosis and Cure,  Medical Infrastructure, Medical Education & Research, Pharmaceutical & Medical Equipment’s, Hospital Administration including Budgetary allocation, Schemes, Legal affairs, Technology, Human Resources Management, etc. They have to be headed by senior medically qualified Bureaucrats and should be assigned with clear cut role functions and job responsibilities under a single legal framework. All duplication of powers and authorities vested with multiple institutions need to be organized and centralised to avoid red tapism in Medical Administration.
• Create a single real-time database containing disease-wise patient records integrating all Hospitals (Public & Private) and draw analytics using Business Intelligence tools to study, monitor, review and evaluate the levels of any disease over a period of time so that Government may devise suitable allocation under Annual Budget for HealthCare.
• To formulate a Central Scheme for Cashless treatment of selected terminal diseases for all Citizens including accident and trauma or Natural calamities under world class medical care abolishing all Insurance or Reimbursement schemes floated for Health Care.
• Develop a Real-time Centralized Human Organ/Blood Registry for citizens to register their requests through on-line using their bonafide credentials and disposed by Government.
• Increase Medical Institutions to produce more qualified doctors with quality medical education and create parallel layers all forms of Traditional Indian Medical streams to work in tandem with Allopathy to combat and conquer all life threatening diseases become world’s superpower under Health Care.