National Health planning, Commission and Achievements in India

National planning:

Planning is a concept of recent origin. The object of national planning is to give a social and economic content to political freedom. Health planning which is a new term in health vocabulary is an important part of national planning. Heath planning is based on the health needs and health demands of the population.

The goal of health planning is the achievement of the optimal level of health. Nurses have their own contribution to make to health planning, because they are responsible for implementing many aspects of the health programme.

Planning Commission:

In March 1950, the Government of India had set up a Planning Commission to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of the resources of the country, increasing production and offering opportunities to all for employment in the service of community.

Health, being an important contributory factor to national development, the Planning Commission gave due importance to health and established a separate Division in the Planning Commission for the formulation of the health programmes to be included in the nations Five Year Plans. A Bureau of Planning was also constituted in 1965 in the Union Health Ministry to secure better coordination between the Centre and State Governments. For purposes of planning, the health sector has been divided into the following sub-sectors:

1.     Control of communicable diseases

2.     Medical education, training and research.

3.     Medical care including hospitals,

4.     dispensaries and primary health centres.

5.     Public health services.

6.     Family Planning Indigenous system of medicine.

All the above sub-sectors have been given due consideration in the nation's Five Year Plans. However, the emphasis has changed from Plan to Plan depending upon the felt-needs of the people and technical considerations. The Health Plan is implemented at various levels - national, state, district, block and village.

Achievements:

As a result of the five year plans, considerable improvement has taken place in the field of health. A brief account of the achievements, has laid down specific goals to be achieved by year 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015. These are given In the table below the steps are already under way to Implement the policy.

Tables National Health Policy- 2002 goals to be achieved by 2015

Eradicate Polio and Yaws       2005

Eliminate Leprosy         2005

Eliminate Kala Azar      2010

Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis         2015

Achieves zero level growth of HIV/AIDS   2007

Reduce mortality by 50 % on account of TB,     

Malaria and other vector and waterborne disease          2010

Reduce prevalence of blindness to 0.5%     2010

Reduce IMR to 30/100 and MMR to 100/Lakh    2010

Increase utilization of public health facilities from        

current level of < 20% to > 75%       2010

Establish an Integrated system of surveillance.   

National Health Accounts and Health Statistics  2005

Increase health expenditure by Government as a %     

of GDP from the existing 0.9% to 2%        2010

Increase share of central grants to constitute      

at least 25% of total health spending          2010

Increase state sector health spending  from 5.5%

to 7% of the budget       2010

Further Increase to 8% of the budget          2010