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Budget 2019: India’s health sector holds these expectations from budget

02-Jul-2019 by Rattan Chand

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. People want to lead a healthy life but if they fall sick, they like to get hassle-free treatment at an affordable cost. The health care services, therefore, have to be focused on prevention of diseases and their cure. Unfortunately, in India there has been more focus on curative services, which are more costly, compared to preventive services. The Indian System of Medicine (ISM) which is more focused on healthy living and disease prevention has been neglected for long due to political or other reasons and is seen inferior to allopathic system.

There is need to correct this bias and ISM needs to be brought to the mainstream. It is essential to institutionalize and start an integrated graduate medical course having common curriculum from the disciplines of Indian System of Medicine and Modern Science (allopathy). This will help in better appreciation of the strengths of other systems by the new practitioners who will be more armed to handle delivery of preventive and curative services.

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