Make health a 'fundamental right': Welfare body urges Centre

NEW DELHI:Ruing the lack of adequate healthcare facilities across the country, a welfare body has asked the Centre to make health a "fundamental right" to address issues of infrastructure and access in the medical sector.

In a letter to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, the Central Government Employees Resident Welfare Association said that a "universal and affordable" policy needs to be framed with attention to the common man and the destitute.

"The common masses of the country are suffering due to lack of adequate healthcare facilities. Most of the government -run hospitals are in poor condition. There is a problem of infrastructure, coordination, manpower and access... Solution to this grave problem lies in making health a fundamental right.

"This will pave the way for better healthcare facilities for one and all," Ajay Kumar, joint secretary of the association, told Nadda in his letter.

He further said that any such policy "has to be universal and affordable".

"Affordability is a big issue. In a diverse country like India, we cannot follow either the US' Obamacare policy or the UK's National Health Service. Ours has to be a comprehensive policy addressing the affordability and accessibility issues," he said.

He said that healthcare expenditure in terms of percentage of GDP should be suitably enhanced to ensure sufficient availability of drugs and trained and skilled manpower etc.