Uttarakhand is the lowest spending state amongst 10 himalayan states on per capita public health expenditure

Uttarakhand have been the worst performing state in terms of providing adequate health services to its inhabitants with the condition of hospitals, health centres in various parts of Uttarakhand in towns, districts n blocks in extremely pathetic condition with tremendous shortage of doctors, paramedics, medicines, staff and compounders including various equipments like X ray, ultrasound machines, MRI, city scan etc not available except in selected hospitals with even ” Jacha Bachcha centres” ill equipped resulting in patients n pregnant women giving birth to infants on the way and patients with critical and even ordinary patients dying on the ways for alleged shortage of medicines, oxygen or late arrival of ambulances, unavailable most of the times in remote villages either devoid of roads or health centres etc.

It is not that Uttarakhand has not made progress in health sector during the last two decades where 9 chief ministers have changed but the fact of the matter is the overall development and improvement in health services have been at quite a low pace with strength of senior doctors, surgeons and specialists lacking in major ( hospitals) including in district n town hospitals.

There had been alleged complaints of some senior doctors running their own private clinics and going on leaves to conduct their private clinics rather than attending government hospitals.

Moreover, the politicians when suffering from severe ailments like heart or kidney related diseases or other health complications, including deadly Covid 19 , come to the refuge of private hospitals or AIIMS Delhi for better and reliable treatment, even if it means paying exorbitant treatment expenses.

In the absence of adequate health facilities to a common man in the interiors of UTTARAKHAND including lack of adequate medical facilities n treatment, with most of the district hospitals like the one of Pauri Garhwal, having been alloted to private management under the PPP mode where the common patients hailing from villages and Pauri townships are sent to private laboratories for various tests being charged exorbitantly.

The sorry state of affairs in these hospitals can be gauged from the fact that few months ago when a father brought his child in the Pauri hospital for stitching of his injured lips bleeding profusely, the hospital didn’t had the stitches as a result of which the child in acute pain had to wait for hours till they were made available.

The matter was raised in social media and news channels by NSUI activists to the utter shame, despair and regrets of the management and government authorities who’d given it to Mahant Indaresh ji under PPP mode, assuring people of better n cheap medical services but all in vain unfortunately .

Meanwhile to substantiate the very fact about the poor health services in Uttarakhand despite allocation of escalated Rs. 3800 for medical health and family welfare in the 2021 budget of 57 thousand crores released by the Uttarakhand’s previous CM Trivendra Singh Rawat , a factsheet report presented by SDC foundation, Dehradun highlighting the per capital public health expenditure in the himalayan states from 2017 to 2019 unambiguously states that sadly and unfortunately Uttarakhand remains the poorest performer in health sector among all the Himalayan states of the country remaining at the lowest ebb.

It has made the least per capita public health expenditure amongst the Himalayan states from 2017 to 2019. According to the table below amongst the ten himalayan states in total it is on the last n tenth position in tetms of lowest per capita HEALTH EXPENDITURE in three years from 2017 to 19 i.e. merely Rs. 5887 as compared to Arunachal Pradesh Rs. 28417 on a person in three years relating to health expenditure with Sikkim rating as the second highest himalayan state in terms of per capita health expenditure next to Arunachal Pradesh. During these three years even the neighbouring state Himachal Pradesh spent double of the amount of Uttarakhand.

States like Himachal, Arunachal n other Himalayan states of Northeast are spending almost three times more than the national average say the Dehradun based SDC factsheet report. According to the report the country’s national health policy 2017 by ministry of health and family welfare recommends minimum Rs 3800 as per capita income in order to deliver quality health services. The experts are also of the strong opinion that the states which have made improved spending on public health have been mote efficiently and effectively countered or dealt with dreaded pandemic than those states who’s spend meagerly on health sector of their respective states.

In a tweet Dr. Anoop Nautiyal of a Dehradun based non profit organisation, SDC Foundation has twerted in Hindi : In order to strengthen the peoples’ health in Uttarakhand resources are required. In the years 2017, 18 and 19, only Rs. 5.38 per day per person were spend in Uttarakhand. This is the lowest expenditure amongst the ten himalayan states of the country. A hill state depending on Tourism must spend more on health and this very fact should be take care of very specifically tweeted Anoop Nautiyal.