Union Health Minister JP Nadda noted in Lok Sabha today, Monday, August 5 that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration has strengthened India's health infrastructure, stating that the country's medical institutions have increased from 387 to 731 since 2014.
He stated this during a discussion on grant requests from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for 2024-25, reports IANS.
"There were 387 medical colleges throughout the nation. The number now stands at 731," Nadda stated.
Furthermore, undergraduate medical seats have, "increased from 51,348 to 1.12 lakh, marking a 118 per cent rise, while postgraduate seats have grown by 133 per cent", according to the Minister.
Nadda further stated that the Narendra Modi government prioritises people's health and that India is now running the world's largest health system under Prime Minister Modi's leadership. According to him, "the allocation of the health budget has also increased by 164 per cent".
“The health budget in the year 2013-14 was Rs 33,278 crore, today that budget has been increased to Rs 90,958 crore,” Nadda said.
He further noted, “Before the first NDA government (Atal Bihari Vajpayee government), there was just one AIIMS (All India Institute Of Medical Sciences) in the country, during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, six AIIMS were opened. In the last 10 years of the Modi government, 22 AIIMS have been approved”.
The health minister informed Parliament that 18 of these are operational, with four still under development.
“About 12 crore families, that is more than 55 crore people, have been provided free treatment facilities up to Rs 5 lakh. And 1.73 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have been established,” he said, regarding the Aayushman Bharat scheme.
Nadda stated that the initiative, which provides free medicines and other health-related services such as testing, has also "reduced out-of-pocket expenditure from 62 per cent to 47.1 per cent" in the country