“The budget has touched upon two significant parts of the healthcare ecosystem that will deliver a long-term positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the people of our nation,” Dr Ashwin Naik

The budget has touched upon two significant parts of the healthcare ecosystem that will deliver a long-term positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the people of our nation. First, the focus on building a national tele-mental health programme is a commendable initiative. With less than 1 psychiatrist per 1,00,000, we Indians face a severe lack of mental health infrastructure and leveraging technology is a definitive way forward to combat this. By building a national network, we will be able to provide the much-needed support in far flung areas of the country, where access to mental health support is limited.

Second, the biggest challenge in healthcare sector currently is access to quality care information and its asymmetry with patients and families at the short end and healthcare providers and hospitals holding the information and power. By building a national digital health ecosystem, the information barrier and asymmetry will help bridge the gap and shifting the power dynamic in favour of the patients and the community.

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