KATHMANDU, May 2: The government is preparing to come up with a policy of discouraging the establishment of private hospitals in areas which already have government health facilities.
The ‘Nepal Health Sector- Strategy Plan 2022-2030’ being formulated by the Ministry of Health and Population states that priority will be given to open a private hospital in the areas without any government hospital.
According to the ministry's Policy and Planning Division chief Dr Krishna Chandra Poudel, the drafting of the strategy is underway. The government aspires to allow the permission of opening private health facilities only in the areas lacking the government ones.
According to Dr Poudel, tax discounts and subsidies will be provided for the establishment of private hospitals in the area sans public hospitals.
The submissions of the views of various experts, organizations and service seekers are underway for the strategy formulation. We aim to ensure quality health services accessible for all and the strategy is being developed accordingly.
"Presently, we are in the phase of collecting suggestions. We will discuss the strategy with the former health ministers and the Health and Education Committee of the Federal Parliament as well," Poudel said.
According to him, making the entire health system resilient, accountable and responsible in line with the federal structure, minimizing the risk of expenses to be borne by the citizen while utilizing the health services, ensuring the equitable and easy access in the quality health services and managing the population, migration and growing urbanization are some of the goals of the strategy.
Division chief Dr Poudel said that attention has been given in the strategy to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in the context of increasing cases of non-communicable diseases compared to the infectious diseases at present.
According to him, the strategy also emphasizes on scaling up investment in health and expanding access to quality health care services for all.
"There is the need for increased investment in health to address the health stressors created by unexpected pandemics as COVID-19 and the health emergency situations as well as the increasing proportion of the older people in the population," he opined.
The strategy includes topics as production of human resources as per the projection, mobilization of skilled health human resources, health discipline and ensuring of adequate economic investment in the health sector.
Ministry spokesperson Dr Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra shared that the strategy is about improving the health standard of the general public. She expressed the confidence that the strategy will help improve the overall quality of health services in the country.
(RSS)