Plans to better public healthcare shouldn’t remain on paper

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The state government will upgrade and create new super-speciality healthcare infrastructure, and double the budgetary expenditure to completely change the public health scenario by 2035. A new plan, called Vision-2035, will be ready in a fortnight, a report in this paper read.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde convened a meeting to discuss measures to correct the ailing infrastructure, along with a host of senior leaders, officials, important stakeholders and deans of medical colleges.

After the meeting, Shinde said respective district collectors had been made nodal officers and been given the authority to buy medicines. There will also be visits to state-run medical facilities in their jurisdiction to check on sanitation, drinking water and upkeep of centres that are either controlled by the medical education department or public health department.

This is a welcome move, as public health infra, accessible to most is found woefully lacking at some many centres. One hopes that the ambitious plan does not simply stay on the table but actually moves so that all that is envisioned and planned is not relegated to papers or files. In fact, leaders need to urgently work on closing the gap, even if not completely at least to some degree between public healthcare and private facilities.

There must be adequate resources, both human and material, to ensure the facility runs smoothly. We are not even talking state-of-the-art but simply little changes like cleanliness, with enough staff to ensure this, more awareness about hygiene in these spaces (even patients and caregivers need to keep the place clean) and signage, benches, chairs for waiting and orderly queues.

Changes have to be made from the ground up, starting at the lowest rung. While the entire plan may target 2035, a start could be made now, with transformations coming through the years.