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Free-medicines-for-all programme launch in
October
Saturday June 23, 2012 11:32:08 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: India's
ambitious plan to provide free medicines to all will be launched
from October, says a government report.
Strongly backed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, the
free-medicines-for-all scheme has received its first financial
allocation of Rs.100 crore from the Planning Commission for
2012-13. The entire programme is estimated to cost Rs.28,560 crore
over the 12th Five Year Plan.
Report of a working group on drugs and food regulation in the 12th
Plan said the plan will be operational from October this year.
An announcement on the prime minister's official Facebook page
Saturday said the Prime Minister's Office has asked the health
ministry to set up a central procurement agency (CPA) for bulk
procurement of drugs as early as possible.
At present, 78 percent of the entire health expenditure in India
is from out of pocket (OOP). Purchasing drugs alone accounts for
72 percent of this expenditure.
Public sector provides healthcare to only 22 percent of the
country's population.
According to health ministry's estimates, this will increase to 52
percent by 2017 once medicines are provided for free from 1.6 lakh
sub-centres, 23,000 primary health centres, 5,000 community health
centres and 640 district hospitals.
A list of medicines has been prepared by the central government,
which has 348 drugs including anti-AIDS, anti-psychotic,
sedatives, anaesthetic agents, lipid lowering agents, steroids and
anti-platelet drugs. States have also been asked to create their
own lists, keeping in mind the diseases that worst affect their
populations.
The central government will bear 75 percent of the expenditure
under the plan.
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