November 6, 2008

‘Increase expenditure on public health’: Surya Kanta Mishra


Kolkata, 3rd Nov: Public expenditure on health should be increased to 2-3 per cent of GDP of the country, up from the present level of 1 per cent, Surya Kanta Mishra, West Bengal Health Minister, said here on Saturday.

“Public expenditure on health has been hovering around 0.9 per cent for several years now, it has to be taken up to 2-3 per cent of GDP,” he told the Health Economic Summit organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
There are 700,000 registered doctors and a million nurses in the country. However, there is still a shortage of 500,000 skilled manpower, said Amit Ghose, Chairman of the BCCI Health sub-committee. More than 80 per cent of the population in India does not have any health insurance policy coverage, Ghose pointed out.

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