(MENAFN- Live Mint) New Delhi: The central government has raised $500 million from the Asian Development bank (ADB) to enhance access to tertiary healthcare and promote quality medical education in Maharashtra, the Manila-based regional development bank said on Wednesday.
Tertiary healthcare refers to specialised care provided over extended periods for complex, severe, or life-threatening conditions.
According to ADB press note, the loan will help the government establish four new medical colleges with specialised tertiary care training centres and hire at least 500 doctors, focusing on under-served districts.
“ADB's decade-long support to India's health sector development has helped shape this programme to help Maharashtra achieve its vision of providing affordable and accessible tertiary health care to all by 2030, and strengthen a cadre of quality and professional medical practitioners,” said Mio Oka, country director for ADB's India Resident Mission, and signatory to the funding.
This funding is expected to support Maharashtra's plan to recruit and retain more doctors through performance-based incentives, ADB said, adding that it also aims to foster healthy competition among medical colleges through a performance-management system.
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The funding was announced amid nationwide protests by practicing doctors advocating for increased hospital safety, and follows student protests over discrepancies in the NEET medical entrance exam.
The funding aims to address broader concerns about medical infrastructure and enhance the quality of medical education in India.
Maharashtra's urban centers, including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, are among India's most economically productive, and have access to medical services, but the rural areas often lack such facilities.
According to the National Health Profile 2023 published by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, Maharashtra has the highest out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure among Indian states, following Uttar Pradesh.
Positive outlook
The ADB funding may help address Maharashtra's inadequate government medical infrastructure. As of early 2023, the state had 512 government hospitals with 27,337 beds.
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In comparison, top rankers, Uttar Pradesh operates 4,942 government hospitals, while Tamil Nadu manages over 116,733 hospital beds, according to the National Health Profile 2023. To be sure, health is a state subject.
India has long struggled with inadequate and affordable healthcare. This year, experts had urged Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase the number of beds per thousand people, a key World Bank metric for assessing healthcare infrastructure.
According to the National Health Profile 2021, India had 0.6 beds per thousand people, well below the two-beds-per-thousand target set in the National Health Policy 2017.
ADB plans to establish India's first state-led centres of excellence in healthcare and medical education. Additionally, the funding aims to cut out-of-pocket costs by improving access to quality medications and promoting sustainable asset management with climate-resilient planning.
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