FM Sitharaman announces additional ₹23,220 crore for public health sector

The FM stated the new funding for healthcare sector would give attention to short term emergency preparedness with special emphasis on children and pediatric care.

Apart from, the funding would be used for short-term HR augmentation by medical students and nursing students.

It would ensure adequate availability of equipment, medicines, access to tele consultation and ambulance services. Moreover, the funding would help to increase availability of the ICU beds, as well as, oxygen supply at central, district and sub-district levels.

The funding would, ” enhance testing capacity and supportive diagnostic, strengthen capacity for surveillance and genome sequencing,” the finance minister added.

The FM cited last year’s data and mentioned ₹15,000 crore emergency health systems project led to 25 fold increase in Covid dedicated hospitals, setting up of seven,929 Covid healthcare centres 9,954 Covid care centres, 7.5 times increase in oxygen supported beds, 42 fold increase in isolation beds and 45 fold increase in ICU beds.

To help revival of the economy battered by COVID-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a slew of measures on Monday. She also announced ₹1.1 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme for enhancing health infrastructure, and enhanced the limit under the ECLGS by 50 per cent to ₹4.5 lakh crore for the MSME sector dealing with liquidity crunch.