Published on: August 27, 2022

Vision document for healthcare sector

Vision document for healthcare sector

Why in news?

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled a vision document that, according to the State government, aims to outline a long-term plan for the holistic development of the healthcare sector in the State.

Highlights:

  • It is touted as India’s first-of-its-kind comprehensive healthcare vision document at a ‘Doctors’ day’ event at the Vidhana Soudha.

Major thematic domains

  • Public health services
  • Health infrastructure
  • Health human resources
  • Surveillance, monitoring and evaluation
  • Technology-enabled healthcare
  • Elderly health
  • Infectious and communicable diseases prevention and control
  • Emergency, critical care, and specialised services
  • Disability and rehabilitation
  • AYUSH services
  • Environmental health
  • Urban health
  • Tribal health
  • Disaster and pandemic preparedness and management

What does the vision document contain?

  • The documents not only touches upon the problems faced by the healthcare sector, but has solutions too.
  • This will be the encyclopaedia of health management in the country, not only for our State.
  • The document has been prepared under the leadership of Gururaj after a year of thorough research, discussions, and debates.
  • “A total of 250 experts have provided their inputs to prepare the document. Good practices and policies from other countries have been recorded in this document.
  • The report includes a development roadmap all the way from primary healthcare in rural areas up to tertiary care and even telemedicine.
  • Meanwhile, the State government plans to open 100 new community health centres in North Karnataka.

Healthcare initiatives by Karnataka Government

  • Karnataka provides comprehensive healthcare and services to the people of the state. The state government has given much priority to the health sector over the years. It took effective measures to improve the health and well-being of the citizens of Karnataka.
  • The state government implemented several rural health programmes to ensure better healthcare of the population living in the rural areas.
  • According to the available data, Karnataka has a network of more than:
    • 2,346 Primary Health Centres
    • 326 Community Health Centres
    • 8,871 Sub-centres
    • There are 176 Government hospitals in the state that provide free treatment to the people.

Karnataka health policy goals

  • Karnataka’s healthcare objectives include providing access to good healthcare and developing the health sector. The state endeavours to provide quality health uniformly to its population.

Karnataka’s health policy goals include to:

  • Provide integrated and comprehensive primary healthcare
  • Establish a credible and sustainable referral system
  • Ensure equity in delivery of quality healthcare
  • Encourage greater public private partnership in provision of quality healthcare in order to better serve the underserved areas
  • Address emerging issues in public health
  • Strengthen health infrastructure
  • Develop health human resources
  • Improve access to safe and quality drugs at affordable prices
  • Increase access to systems of alternative medicine

Health indicators of Karnataka

  • Karnataka’s health indicators are in the middle range in comparison with the other 28 Indian states.

Health infrastructure in Karnataka

  • Karnataka follows a three tier rural public health infrastructure– primary, secondary and tertiary.
  • At the primary level of health system the state has Sub-Centres, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres.
  • At the secondary level there are the District Hospitals. At the tertiary level the health system in Karnataka has medical colleges and speciality hospitals.
  • the State Government of Karnataka offers various schemes to provide health benefits to residents of the state. A few popular schemes include Vajpayee Arogya Shree, Rajiv Arogya Bhagya Scheme, Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, etc
Name of the service Schemes offering the service
Curative Services Vajpayee Arogya Shree, Rajiv Arogya Bhagya, Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme
Reproductive and Child Health Services Janani Suraksha Yojana, Madilu, Prasuti Araike
Child and Adolescent Health Services Shuchi, Rashtriya Bala Swasthya Karyakrama (RBSK)
Immunisation Programme Indradhanush
Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases National Leprosy Control Programme, National Guinea Worm Eradication Programme, National AIDS Control Programme, National Programme for Control of Blindness, Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme
National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme National Anti-Malaria Programme, Anti-JE Programme, National Filaria Control, Dengue Control Programme
Healthcare Support Services Prevention of Food Adulteration, Laboratory Services, Vital Statistics, Environmental Sanitation, Nutritional Services, Health Education Training and School Health Services
Transport and ICT Services Mobile Health Units, Arogya Sahayavani-104, EMRI (Arogya Kavacha-108)
Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme –

Benefits Offered by the State Government Schemes:

  • All the above programmes and schemes offer varied healthcare benefits to the citizens of Karnataka.
Name of the scheme Features and Benefits
Vajpayee Arogya Shree
  • Was designed with an intent to augment access to quality tertiary health care for Below Poverty Level (BPL) families including hospitalisation, therapy, and surgery.
  • Offers cover for critical illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, cancer treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc.), neurological diseases, burns, renal diseases, neonatal treatments, and polytrauma cases.
  • Covers 5 members in a family up to a sum of Rs.1.5 lakh available on a floater basis.
Rajiv Arogya Bhagya Scheme
  • Health insurance scheme for Above Poverty Line (APL) families for providing tertiary treatment accessible and affordable.
  • Offers cover for treatment in 7 super specialty categories of Cancer, Neurosurgery, Cardiology, Urology, Pediatric Surgery, Burns, and Polytrauma. Cover includes medicine costs and ICU charges.
  • Patients have to make a co-payment of 30% of the hospital package rates.
Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme
  • Scheme for employees of the state government started with an objective of providing tertiary medical treatment to the employees and their dependents.
  • Benefit package includes doctor consultation charges, ward charges, preoperative investigations, operation costs, medicine costs, etc.
  • Covers tertiary treatments in 7 categories of oncology, cardiology, neurology, genito-urinary surgery, pediatric surgery and neonatal surgery, burns, and polytrauma.
Janani Suraksha Yojana
  • Introduced in 2005 with a goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality rates among economically-challenged women by encouraging institutional deliveries.
  • An amount of Rs.700 is offered for normal deliveries while women who undergo a cesarean delivery will be given a compensation of Rs.1,500.
  • The cover is available for up to 2 deliveries and the age of the women delivering a child should be above 19 years.
Indradhanush
  • Launched with a mission to immunise kids against 7 diseases that can be prevented by vaccination – polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis, measles, tetanus, and hepatitis B.
  • The scheme was implemented in 2 phases. In the first phase, 201 districts were covered while in the second phase, 82 districts were covered.
  • The scheme has been launched in partnership with WHO, UNICEF and Rotary International.
Rashtriya Bala Swasthya Karyakrama
  • Introduced with an objective of detecting and managing the 4 Ds – Defects of birth, deficiency conditions, diseases in children, and developmental delays including disabilities.
  • Children studying in 1st to 12th Std. in government and government-aided schools can avail the benefits of the scheme.
  • The scheme is a part of the National Health Mission and under this, 30 listed health conditions in children will be detected and treated in the early stages.

Arogya Karnataka Programme:

  • Apart from the schemes mentioned above, the government of Karnataka has launched a universal health insurance scheme for all its residents, in March 2018. The scheme is called as Arogya Karnataka and with this, Karnataka has become the first state in India to implement a scheme that offers universal health coverage (UHC).
  • The scheme offers a cover of Rs.1.5 lakh per family per year and will benefit at least 1.43 crore households in Karnataka.