Odisha One Of The Top Spenders On Health

Bhubaneswar: Odisha ranks among the top five states which spend the highest on health per capita, according to an analysis of RBI’s 2018-19 State Finances Report.

While Gujarat topped the list with a per capita spending of Rs 303 on health services, Odisha spent Rs 190, ahead of Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, MP and Rajasthan.

The report also revealed that the health centres in Odisha lack quality basic infrastructure. There is no water supply in around 12 percent of the Primary Health Centres and no electricity in over 8 percent of them. In comparison, Bihar’s health centres are fully equipped with these basic facilities.

Only 15 percent of Community Health Centres (CHC) in the state have more than 30 beds.

The national average for number of beds in rural hospitals is 14, while it is just four for Odisha. The state also scored poorly on the urban front with 82 beds as against the national average of 114.

Only 7 percent of the CHCs have functional stabilisation units for newborns compared to 40 percent in Rajasthan and MP. Similarly, only 19 percent of X-ray machines in CHCs are in working condition, while Bihar’s score is 100 percent.

As against the requirement of 1,480 trained professionals for the 370 CHCs in the state, only 884 are sanctioned and of these 566 posts are lying vacant.

Revenue-expenditure wise, the state ranks 10th.

Globally, India ranks poorly in public health expenditure according to a report published in CNBC TV 18. Neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka spends four times and Indonesia the twice of India’s per-capita expenditure on health.

The National Health Profile 2018 indicated that India just spends 1.02 percent of its GDP on public health.