Government would expand its hospital network

Government will have to expand its own capacity to provide tertiary care services. It can strengthen 58 medical colleges in the first phase, then upgrade 58 district hospitals to become medical colleges and in the third phase build close to 15 more new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The centre has six AIIMS which would soon be functioning at full capacity.  This apart a number of national tertiary care hospitals have been declared national centers of excellence. But seeing the growing demand, the need for further expansion of infrastructure for specialty and super specialty services at state level would remain. It is hoped state governments would also pay due attention in this regard. The draft National Health Policy has also indicated that the government would purchase tertiary care in private hospitals to fulfil its obligations created through public insurance policies which may be made universal in coming years.
(Note: The article was first published in the Lokayat magazine:April, 2015)