New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The outlay for health sector has to be raised significantly in the post-COVID era, besides increasing availability of doctors and paramedics in rural areas, 15th finance Commission Chairman N K Singh said on Thursday.

He said the immediate need is to beef up health infrastructure and also increase availability of anaesthesia.

"Outlay for health sector has to be increased significantly," Singh said, adding the current level of spending is 0.9 per cent of GDP.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with a high-level group on health sector, he said the immediate need would be how to address the growing need of rural India and one of the options is to rope in final year MBBS students for this.

The 15th Finance Commission had reconvened its High Level Group (HLG) on Health Sector headed by AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria in the light of recent developments due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. 

The commission felt an immediate need to reassess the requirement of health manpower (medical and paramedical) and estimated requirement of resources for 2021-22 to 2025-26 in relation to the health infra-gap (hospital infrastructure, medical equipment, PPE, etc).

Further, the mechanism to fund these requirements will need to be critically examined, including the enhanced role of the private sector.

Besides AIIMS Director Guleria, the HLG included Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Health City; Deelip Govind Mhaaisekar, Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Science; Naresh Trehan, Medanta City; Bhabatosh Biswas, Prof & HoD of Cardio Thoracic Surgery, R G Kar Medical College; and Prof K Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India. 

The group has also included as members S K Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi and Harsh Mahajan, Founder, Mahajan Imaging, New Delhi.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)