Dr. Alok Khullar, CEO, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai:
“The impetus given to the healthcare structure in the last 2 years has benefitted the sector. In today’s budget, the focus on infrastructural development is bound to spur growth and enable accessibility for more people. It is imperative that healthcare infrastructure grows alongside the overall infrastructural development of the country. There is still a need for focused skill development for various healthcare needs which the budget failed to address. The impetus given to manufacturing sector can facilitate setting up manufacturing units for healthcare devices and equipment in India, thus, reducing the end cost. While the pandemic has unfolded many aspects of healthcare, a lot of mental health problems across all age groups were also witnessed. We welcome the budget’s focus to implement a ‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ to address the mental health problems and provide counselling & care services. This will create more awareness and also open more avenues in the overall health & wellbeing of an individual. Additionally, the budget aims to roll out a National Digital Health Ecosystem which comes in as a blessing for the public where digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities will be made available.”
Dr. C.J. Vetrievel – Founder Chairman & Managing Director, Be Well Hospitals, Chennai:
“The finance minister highlighted the need to have accessible healthcare across rural parts of the country. With our aim to also provide infrastructure and health services in sub-urban and peri-urban regions, we believe that accessible healthcare is the need of the hour. We thank the finance minister and the Central Government for recognizing the efforts taken by the healthcare sector in tackling the pandemic as well as accelerating the nation-wide vaccination drive. We have been seeing the importance given to Mental Health since the beginning of the pandemic and now that has also taken a significant position in the Union Budget 2022 – 2023. The need to pay attention to one’s mental health has been well addressed in the budget where allocation of funds to set up a ‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ is proposed. This move will create more awareness among the public and the need to prioritize mental health & overall wellbeing. The overall impetus towards primary healthcare and public healthcare is a welcomed initiative. This is a visionary budget with long term unprecedented infra spending. This provides impetus to all sectors due to the ripple effect. The allocation of funds for healthcare, being a core infra sector, could have however been better.”