The National Tele Mental Health Programme will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the year 2022-23 on Tuesday. She started her speech by expressing empathy for those who had to bear adverse health and economic effects of the pandemic. Healthcare and well-being has received top priority in this year's budget.

Sitharaman noted that the initiatives of the last year's Budget have seen significant progress. "The strengthening of health infrastructure, speedy implementation of the vaccination programme, and the nation-wide resilient response to the current wave of the pandemic, are evident for all," she said, adding that adequate allocations have been provided in this Budget as well.

For further improvement of health infrastructure, Sitharaman announced that an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities.

The government has also proposed to launch a National Tele Mental Health Programme.

The pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages. To better the access to quality mental health counselling and care services, a 'National Tele Mental Health Programme' will be launched," the Finance Minister said in her Budget speech.

This proposed Programme will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support, she elaborated.

Industry experts appreciate Govt's efforts towards mental health issues

Subhamoy Dastidar, Director, AtEase, feels that the proposed National Tele-Mental Health program will be indeed a strong step towards supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of individuals, families, and society at large.

"As a strong ally of mental health, it's gratifying to see that mental health has got a rare mention in Union Budget 2022-23. This shows the government's acceptance and concern towards holistic health and not just physical health which has been brought to the fore by the pandemic. Post pandemic, especially since 2020 mental health issues are no more considered an urban phenomenon but have spread across small towns in India and need to make mental health services more accessible is bigger than ever," he commented.

Tarun Gupta, Co-founder, LISSUN, cited that mental health issues have been rising in India as a result of the pandemic. The cases of depression and anxiety disorders witnessed an increase of about 25 per cent globally, and by 35 per cent in India alone, according to him.

"The National Mental Health Programme and Health and Wellness Centres alone could not have reached every individual in the crisis that they might face struggling in a moment. The easy access was the primary point of concern for everyone trying to help towards the issue. The government has recognised this, and addressed the same by launching Tele mental health service. The budget inculcating the fact that focussing mental and emotional wellness is the need of the hour, itself talks about how progressive we are becoming in our approach as a nation," Gupta asserted.

Mr. Vikram Thaploo, CEO Apollo Telehealth commented, "The launch of the National Tele Mental Health Program is a welcome move by the government to augment the use of telemedicine services as well as provide support to people with mental health disorders. An open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will further help in strengthening the healthcare services within the country. The increased investment towards Health Infrastructure and focus on a holistic approach to health is seen as a testimony of the commitment to building stronger health systems in the country."

More budget reactionsfrom healthcare industry experts

Commenting on the launch of the open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem, Dr Preet Pal Thakur, Co-founder GlamyoHealth, said , "The primary challenge in delivering fine health services was the lack of awareness and access. A person sitting in tier 2 city might not even know about the presence of a probable medical facility to his current challenge. With the launch of the open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem this particular gap will be filled in a single go. As the Budget mentioned, the platform will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, which will serve the purpose of access and availability of information."

As the future of manufacturing is driven with robotics and other automation technologies, Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals appreciated the announcement of PLI schemes to create manufacturing global champions under AtmaNirbhar Bharat. "I am hopeful and happy about the changes on the healthcare, which is an important area for India. The key is in its implementation," he said.

Ashok Patel, CEO and Founder Max Ventilator, feels the government's decision to accelerate the country's general infrastructure building including connectivity and logistics through Gatishakti would not only catalyze the broader domestic manufacturing, but it would also have positive spillover effects on the medical device segment.

"The continued policy support to MSMEs by way of extension of ECLGS scheme would also be beneficial to a large number of medical device makers who fall under the MSME category. At the same time, the budget highlighting the PLI scheme in general should also hold value for the medical device sector. The creation of a national digital health ecosystem with focus on mental health would also lead to enhanced business activities," Patel commented.

The Finance Minister also stated that 95 per cent of the 112 aspirational districts had made substantial progress in key sectors such as health, nutrition, infrastructure etc. and that efforts would now be focused on areas that were underperforming.

Reacting to this announcement, Jesal Doshi, Deputy CEO, B Medical Systems said that they are hopeful that the Government impetus will improve India's ability to access world-class medical cold chain products while also improving India's export competitiveness in this industry.

Arnab Basumallik, Director Government Affairs, Edwards Lifesciences, added, "We welcome the increased capital expenditure layout from 5.54 L Cr. to 7.5 L Cr . With effective grant-in to the states the capital expenditure can increase to 10.68 L Cr. We expect a good part of it will be spend on building healthcare infrastructure, as per the aspirations of National Infrastructure pipeline - in building 73 state of the art hospitals, tertiary hospitals in every district, secondary hospitals in every sub-division and primary health care and diagnostic centers in block levels. Enhanced expenditure on improving logistics under Gati -Shakti will improve transportation infrastructure which will also benefit the last mile deliverables of medical technologies."

India is in a strong position to withstand challenges

Acknowledging the improvement of health infrastructure in the past two years, Sitharaman said that the country is in a strong position to withstand challenges.

She said, "I recognise we are in the midst of an Omicron wave, with high incidence, but milder symptoms. Further, the speed and coverage of our vaccination campaign has helped greatly. With the accelerated improvement of health infrastructure in the past two years, we are in a strong position to withstand challenges. I am confident that with Sabka Prayas we will continue our journey of strong growth."