Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Tuesday an open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem while presenting the Budget 2022 in Parliament.
The National Digital Ecosystem will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities, said the finance minister.
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With the Covid-19 affecting the mental health of people, who have been adapting to physical, psychological and economical changes in the past two years of the pandemic, Sitharaman also announced the National Tele Mental Health program, which will provide access to quality mental health counseling and care services.
The program will include 23 tele mental health centers of excellence with National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans) being the nodal center and technology support being provided by IIT-Bangalore, she added.
“We are in the midst of the Omicron wave, the speed of our vaccination campaign has helped greatly. I am confident that ‘Sabka Prayaas’, we’ll continue with strong growth,” the FM said in her initial part of the Budget speech.
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This is the fourth straight time that Sitharaman is presenting the Union Budget 2022.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Budget 2021-22, had announced a 137% increase in health allocation to Rs. 2.23 lakh crore (Rs. 2,23,846 crore) from the previous year’s budget estimate of over Rs. 94,000 crore (Rs. 94,452 crore) and a 118% increase from the previous year’s revised budget of over Rs. 1.02 lakh crore (Rs. 1,02,873 crore).
The Economic Survey tabled on Monday mentioned that although the Covid-19 pandemic has affected almost all social services, yet the health sector was the worst hit. Expenditure on health sector increased from Rs. 2.73 lakh crore in 2019-20 (pre-COVID-19) to Rs 4.72 lakh crore in 2021-22 (BE), an increase of nearly 73%. The Economic Survey also mentioned that Covid-19 vaccination should be treated as a macro-economic indicator since it is not merely a health response but is critical for opening up the economy, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22. The country crossed the milestone of administrating more than 156 crore doses of vaccines on January 16, 2022.
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