New National Health Policy (NHP 2017)

Last heath policy formulated: NHP 2002 (to be replaced by new health policy in the document)

Objective: Achieving universal health coverage & delivering quality health care services to all at affordable cost.

Highlights:

• Promises to increase public spending on health to 2.5 per cent of the GDP
• Providing assured services in the form of free drugs and diagnostics
• Allocating major proportion (upto two-thirds or more) of resources to primary care followed by secondary and tertiary care. 
• Mainstreaming the potential of AYUSH & Yoga would also be introduced much more widely in school and work places
• National health cards to be issued
• Proposes regular tracking of Disability Adjusted Life Years Index to measure the burden of diseases by major categories until 2020.
• It proposes two beds per 1,000 of the population to enable access within the golden hour (the first 60 minutes after a traumatic injury).
• New Institutions proposed:
• National Healthcare Standards Organisation: to rate medical facilities
• Tribunal to adjudicate people’s complaints. 
• National Digital Health Authority (NDHA): to regulate, develop and deploy digital health across the continuum of care.
• Key targets:
• Increase Life Expectancy at birth from 67.5 to 70 by 2025.
• Reduce Under Five Mortality to 23 by 2025.
• Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 by 2019.
• Achieve the global 2020 HIV target (also termed 90:90:90; 90 per cent of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 per cent of all people diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression)
• Eliminating leprosy by 2018, kala-azar and lymphatic filariasis by 2017, TB by 2025
• To reduce premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases by 25 per cent by 2025.