‘I welcome the increase in health care and budget allocation of Rs 37,330 crore for the health care sector in the next financial year 2013-14 budget, up from Rs 30,702 crore in the current fiscal, thus a rise of 22 per cent in allocation. 56 per cent of it is allocated for primary health care.’
– Dr RR Pulgoankar, CEO, Jaslok Hospital & Research
‘The 12th Five Year Plan envisages spending around Rs 300,000 crores for the entire five year period, which works out to Rs. 60,000 crores per annum for each year. Given that the plan per se was only approved in late December, 2012, the meager allocation of Rs. 29,272 crores in 2012-13, is required to be compensated with a higher budget allocation for the remaining four years of the plan period. But our generous Finance Minister allocated Rs. 37,330 crores for 2013-14, only half of what was promised. Interestingly, he dedicated this budget for education and health!!!’
– Sakthivel Selvaraj, Senior Health Economist, Public Health Foundation of India
‘Finance Minister has taken a commendable step by allocating funds for training and education and thereby laying thrust on capacity building. However, steps towards delivering broad access to health services by improving quality of care and reducing costs seem to be completely missing.’
– Dr Pervez Ahmed, Lead Director & Vice Chairman, Saket City Hospital
‘24.5 per cent increase over RE in the new national health mission around training and education, Rs 1650 crore for setting up six AIIMS-like institutes, Rs 1,069 crore for the department of AYUSH will contribute to building capacity of the healthcare sector. However, these fund allocations will not have a significant role to play in improving healthcare delivery.’
– Dr Mahesh Inder Veer Singh, CEO, Saket City Hospital
‘Of course a marginal increase of the health budget will not change the scenario of the enormous existing health problems. Again majority chunk has been allocated to curative health related issues. Preventive aspects have been ignored. Till the time health expenditure goes beyond the nine per cent of GDP it may not be able to possible to make healthier India.’
– Prof GL Khanna, Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Manav Rachna International University
‘While the responsibility of providing effective healthcare seems to be falling entirely on the private sector, incentivising hospitals to provide affordable healthcare facilities would have been a nice budget gift to the middle class citizen given the current inflation and the state of the economy.’
– Dr Krishna Shama Rao, Medical Director, Maya Clinic & Foundation
‘The six AIIMS like institute, to be commissioned by 2014 is an excellent initiative. However, the execution of this initiative is something that the industry will watch out for.’
– Dr Sujit Chatterjee, CEO, Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital
‘We most heartily welcome the investment allowance of 15 per cent intended to spur asset creation and hope the benefit of the same will be available to investments in medical equipment by healthcare providers, who operate in a capital intensive business.’
– Dr AM Arun, Chairman, Vasan Healthcare Group
‘Considering that the expenditure on lifestyle related diseases is on the rise in the country, the budget should have encouraged the wellness industry with incentives to ensure that this treatment becomes affordable and makes India’s working force more productive.’
– Atul Bhide, Director – Finance, Vaidya Sane Ayurved Laboratories
‘Although the increase in allocation for healthcare is a positive move, but is certainly not enough. As I had mentioned earlier, for the sector to make significant strides a minimum allocation of four to five per cent of GDP is necessary.’
– Ameera Shah, MD & CEO, Metropolis Healthcare
‘Considering the fact that private sector serves 75 per cent of the healthcare diagnostics responsibility for the country, the Union Budget has yet gain missed the opportunity to recognise the stellar role of the private sector, both in terms of providing high quality affordable services and geographic reach.’
– Dr Sanjeev Chaudhry, MD, SRL Diagnostics
‘The healthcare sector has not significantly benefitted in the last few budgets and in this budget too there has been a total neglect. Overall, I would say it’s a lacklustre budget.’
– Pramod Lele, CEO, Hinduja Hospital
‘The challenge for the ministry is not an increased allocation of funds but the utilisation of those funds to make a meaningful difference.’
– Dr Amit Thadhani, Consulting Laparoscopic Surgeon and Medical Director, Niramaya Hospitals
‘This is a very responsible budget. It is a combination of incentives to multiple sections which have been focused on – especially skills development and education. A significant allocation has been made for science, and research and development, rural development, health, sanitation and particularly for infrastructure.’
– Sangita Reddy, Executive Director – Operations, Apollo Hospitals
‘Few crucial things have not been covered under the budget namely infectious diseases, trauma care and primary healthcare. Emergency and trauma care services cannot be ignored seeing the increasing numbers of accidents happening across the city.’
– Dr Pavan Kumar, Consultant Cardiovascular Surgeon at Lilavati and Nanavati Hospital
‘The implementation is key and I specifically welcome the Governments move to streamline AYUSH and encourage the care of the elderly citizens.’
– Suresh Soni, Chairman and CEO, Nova Medical Centers
‘The funding of Rs 1650 crore earmarked for the six AIIMS –like institutions and a time deadline of 2014 signifies a robust medical education infrastructure for the country.’
– Dr Ramen Goel, Head- Bariatric Surgery, Nova Specialty Surgery, Mumbai
‘Not much for the pharma or the healthcare sector in the budget. Directionally, the Government has shown the commitment towards the healthcare sector by increasing the spend for National Health Mission by 24 per cent over RE of last year. Also the continued focus on medical education and training (including through AIIMs) is positive.’
– Hitesh Sharma, Partner & National Leader – Life Sciences, Ernst & Young
‘The budget has its heart in the right place, because it has made smoking expensive and green hybrid vehicles cheaper.’
– Dr Ramakanta Panda, VC, MD Asian Heart Institute
‘The focus on the healthcare sector in the current budget has been restricted to boosting government spending on preventive and curative healthcare for the common person, especially women and children, while leaving the private healthcare sector largely untouched.’
– Charu Sehgal, Senior Director, Consulting, Strategy & Operations, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India
‘Despite the hike in the healthcare allocation the government spend is the lowest amongst BRIC nations. It may be insufficient to achieve the goals of universal healthcare set out the next five year plan.’
– Dr Rana Mehta, Leader Healthcare, PwC India
‘The budget has announced a few key initiatives in healthcare. Some of the notable ones are around a mainstreaming of AYUSH practitioners that if implemented effectively will partly address the need gap for doctors and healthcare professionals in the country.’
– Amit Mookim, Partner, National Industry Head – Healthcare, KPMG in India
‘This budget is not all exciting as there is no big bang announcements. The Finance Minister has fallen short of expectations across all sections. Nothing much has been addressed to narrow the growing fiscal deficit.’
– Purushotama Reddy, Vice President, Finance & Legal, Omega Healthcare
‘FICCI welcomes the Finance Minister’s resoluteness to impart momentum to the growth trajectory and make development both inclusive and sustainable.’
– Naina Lal Kidwai, President, FICCI
‘That the government has resolved to look at health for all as not just important, but a priority, is reassuring.’
– Dr Mukesh Batra, Founder & CMD, Dr Batra’s Laboratories
‘This is another year in which health sector overall has been ignored by the Government. We wanted status similar to infrastructure status, incentives for local innovation and manufacturing in the med tech industry and higher tax exemption for annual health checkups etc to achieve ‘Health for all’ objective by 2020.’
– Dr GSK Velu, Founder & MD, Trivitron Healthcare