Union Budget 2022 | Boost to mental healthcare sector welcome, others services ignored: experts

Many feel that the Budget had given a cold shoulder again to the medical device industry.

Healthcare industry experts have expressed mixed reactions to the Union Budget 2022 stating that while the boost to the mental health sector is welcome, the Budget does not hold very much promise to other essential service in the healthcare sector, including the crucial medical device industry.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday while presenting the Union Budget 2022 in the second year of the COVID-19 that the pandemic had accentuated the mental health problems in people of all ages and announced the plan to set up a National Tele-Mental Health programme in India. The Minister announced that 23 tele-mental health centres would be launched with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) as the nodal centre.

“To better the access to quality mental health counseling and care services, a National-Tele Mental Health programme will be launched. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Bangalore, will provide tech support for the mental health programme,’’ she said. Besides this the Minister announced that an open platform for the national digital health ecosystem would be rolled out and it would consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities. Additional she said that 95% of 112 aspirational districts had made significant progress in health and other parameters and that efforts would now be made to work on districts that were lagging.