NITI Aayog member VK Paul said the government is keen to expand the ambit of its flagship health insurance scheme the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and called upon states and industry to align with it to make it a high volume and modest return model of healthcare.

“The central government is willing to increase its ambit. PM JAY is here to stay and it is the main vehicle for secondary and tertiary care and therefore we have to reposition ourselves to align with this,” Paul said while addressing a health summit, jointly organised by Ficci, NITI Aayog and the health ministry.

“The government will continue to refine PMJAY and all those who are not yet part of it should partner with it. We must work to include the remaining hospitals into the PMJAY paradigm,” he said, adding we have to work on the high volume and modest return model in this.

Talking about the health expenditure of states, Paul said state governments are planning to increase their budgets on healthcare from current 4-4.5% to almost 8%, which should help in getting the requisite focus on enhancing the healthcare status.

Calling for a focu approach on critical medicine, Paul further said, “there is a need for building a national network of excellent emergency and trauma systems which has the element of transfer ambulances as part of intra-ambulance care”.

According to Paul, there is a need to convert more district hospitals into medical colleges to help augment our human resources, urging the private sector to increase focus on diplomate of national board (DNB) education for enhancing the specialist doctors in the country.

Urging the private players to strengthen the critical care system in India as the public health system continues to be weak in providing critical care, Paul said critical care medicine has to be leveraged by the nation. “On the public health side this is a weak area, and we need your (industry) help to strengthen the critical care of the nation, adding it’s a spontaneous area where the government and industry can work together.