National Health Policy - Comprehensive Details & Coverage

The primary objective of the National Health Policy is to clarify, strengthen, and prioritize the Government's role in shaping the Health System across multiple dimensions. This encompasses investments in health, disease prevention, and the promotion of good health through cross-sectoral actions. The policy emphasizes organizing healthcare services, developing human resources, and ensuring access to advanced technologies. This article delves into the National Health Policy 2017 and its important aspects.

Overview

The National Health Policy 2017 advances upon the progress since the previous 2002 Policy. Several significant elements define the context for the 2017 Policy:

Emerging Health Priorities: While maternal and child mortality rates have declined, there is a rising trend in non-communicable and infectious diseases.
Healthcare Industry Growth: The robust healthcare industry is anticipated to grow exponentially.
Catastrophic Healthcare Costs: The surging healthcare costs result in catastrophic expenses that exacerbate poverty.
Economic Growth: Economic growth enhances fiscal capacity substantially.

Goals

The Policy's goal is to achieve the highest level of health and well-being for every individual across age groups through promotive and preventive healthcare. It guarantees universal access to high-quality healthcare services to avert financial distress, enhancing access, improving quality, and reducing overall healthcare costs. The policy aligns with Sustainable Development Goals and national efforts.

Objectives

The Policy concentrates on improving health status through concerted policy actions in each sector. It intends to broaden preventive, promotive, curative, palliative, and rehabilitative services across the Public Health Sector, with a focus on quality.

Key Principles

The fundamental principles of the National Health Policy 2017 are outlined below:

Professionalism, Integrity, and Ethics: Upholding high professional standards with integrity and ethics in healthcare delivery.
Equity: Alleviating inequity by eliminating disparities based on gender, caste, poverty, and social exclusions.
Affordability: Ensuring healthcare is affordable and preventing catastrophic healthcare expenditures for households.
Universality: Designing inclusive systems to serve every individual, avoiding social and economic exclusions.
Patient-centered Quality Care: Delivering gender-sensitive, safe, effective, and respectful healthcare while maintaining confidentiality.
Accountability: Ensuring transparency and eliminating corruption within healthcare systems.
Inclusive Partnerships: Engaging a multistakeholder approach involving various sectors.
Pluralism: Emphasizing integrative healthcare practices, including AYUSH.
Decentralization: Encouraging decentralization in decision-making and community involvement in health planning.
Adaptiveness and Dynamism: Continual improvement based on new knowledge and evidence.

Health System Strengthening

Health Finance

Enhance government health expenditures from 1.15% to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.
Increase State sector health spending beyond 8% of the Budget by 2020.
Reduce catastrophic health expenditures for households by 25% by 2025.

Health Infrastructure and Human Resources

Ensure availability of paramedics and doctors in high-priority districts by 2020.
Increase community health volunteers per population ratio by 2025.
Establish primary and secondary care facilities in priority districts by 2025.

Health Management Information

Develop a district-level digital information database on health system components by 2020.
Strengthen health surveillance systems and establish significant disease registries by 2020.
Enhance Health Information Exchanges and National Health Information Network by 2025.

Health Status and Programme Impact

Life Expectancy and Healthy Life

Increase life expectancy from 67.5 to 70 by 2025.
Regularly track the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) Index for major disease trends by 2022.
Reduce Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.1 both nationally and sub-nationally by 2025.

Mortality by Age and Cause

Reduce under-5 mortality rate to 23 and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 100 by 2020.
Decrease Infant Mortality Rate to 28 by 2019.
Reduce Neonatal Mortality Rate to 16 and Still Birth Rate to single digits by 2025.

Reduction of Disease Prevalence/Incidence

Achieve the global 90:90:90 target for HIV/AIDS by 2020.
Maintain the status of leprosy, Kala-Azar, and Lymphatic Filariasis elimination by 2017-2018.
Maintain a tuberculosis cure rate of 85% or more, and aim for elimination by 2025.
Reduce blindness prevalence to 0.25 per 1000 by 2025, decreasing disease burden by one-third.
Cut premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, or chronic respiratory diseases by 25% by 2025.

Health System Performance

Coverage of Health Services

Boost utilization of public health facilities by at least 50% by 2025.
Keep Antenatal Care coverage and Skilled Attendance at childbirth above 90% by 2025.
Achieve more than 90% infant immunization by age 1 by 2025.
Fulfill family planning needs above 90% nationally and sub-nationally by 2025.
Ensure 80% of households manage hypertension and diabetes by 2025.

Cross-Sectoral Goals Related to Health

Lower tobacco use prevalence by 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2025.
Decrease stunting prevalence in children under 5 by 40% by 2025.
Achieve universal access to safe water and sanitation under Swachh Bharat Mission by 2020.
Cut occupational injuries by 50% from existing levels by 2020.
Track selected health behaviors nationwide or by state level.

Policy Thrust

Ensuring Adequate Investment: Schedule public health expenditures to reach 2.5% of GDP promptly.
Preventive and Promotive Health: Focus on coordinated action across seven priority areas to create a healthy living environment:
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
- Promotion of balanced diets and regular exercise
- Addressing tobacco, alcohol, and substance abuse
- Yatri Suraksha to prevent rail and road fatalities
- Nirbhaya Nari to tackle gender-based violence
- Enhancing workplace safety and reducing stress
- Reducing both indoor and outdoor air pollution
Organization of Public Health Care Delivery: Proposing seven fundamental changes to organize healthcare services.

For more details on how the National Health Policy adapts to varying health needs, visit this page. Additionally, to understand healthcare guidelines during crises like COVID-19, you can explore operating requirements for commercial establishments during COVID-19.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about National Health Policy.

The primary goal of the National Health Policy is to inform, clarify, strengthen and prioritize the Government's role in shaping the health system in various dimensions such as investments in health, prevention of diseases, promotion of good health through cross-sectoral actions, organization of healthcare services, developing human resources, and access to technologies.

The four significant changes in the context of the National Health Policy 2017 are: ever-changing health priorities, growth rate of the healthcare industry, catastrophic expenditure due to healthcare costs, and the rise in economic growth enabling enhanced fiscal capacity.

The main objectives of the National Health Policy are to improve the overall health status through concerted policy actions in every sector and expand preventive, promotive, curative, palliative, and rehabilitative services offered throughout the public health sector with an ultimate focus on quality.

The key principles of the National Health Policy 2017 include professionalism, integrity, and ethics; equity; affordability; universality; patient-centered and quality of care; accountability; inclusive partnerships; pluralism; decentralization; and adaptiveness and dynamism.

The goals related to health finance under the National Health Policy are to increase health expenditures by the Government as a percentage of GDP from 1.15% to 2.5% by 2025, increase the state sector health spending to above 8% of the budget by 2020, and decrease the proportion of households facing catastrophic health expenditures by 25% by 2025.

The goals related to health infrastructure and human resources under the National Health Policy are to ensure the availability of paramedics and doctors as per the Indian Public Health Standard (IPHS) norms in high-priority districts by 2020, increase the number of community health volunteers as per the IPHS norms in high-priority districts by 2025, and establish primary and secondary care facilities as per the norms in high-priority districts by 2025.

The goals related to health status and program impact under the National Health Policy include increasing life expectancy, reducing mortality rates for children and mothers, achieving targets for HIV/AIDS, eliminating diseases like leprosy and kala-azar, reducing the incidence of tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases, and increasing the coverage of health services.

The cross-sectoral goals related to health under the National Health Policy include reducing the prevalence of tobacco use, stunting in children, improving access to safe water and sanitation, reducing occupational injuries, and tracking selected health behaviors.

The key policy thrusts of the National Health Policy are ensuring adequate investment in public health expenditure, preventive and promotive health actions, and reorganizing public health care delivery through seven fundamental policy shifts.

The article does not explicitly mention the seven fundamental policy shifts proposed for organizing healthcare services under the National Health Policy. It only states that the National Health Policy proposes seven fundamental policy shifts in organizing healthcare services but does not provide further details.