Context:

• Recently the Union Cabinet has approved the Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018 for regulation and standardisation of education and services by allied and healthcare professionals.
• The Bill provides for setting up of an Allied and Healthcare Council of India and corresponding State Allied and Healthcare Councils which will play the role of a standard-setter and facilitator for professions of Allied and Healthcare.

Impact of the Bill

• Bring all existing allied and healthcare professionals on board during the first few of years from the date of establishment of the Council.
• It will provide Opportunity to create qualified, highly skilled and competent jobs in healthcare by enabling the professionalism of the allied and healthcare workforce.
• High quality, multi-disciplinary care in line with the vision of Ayushman Bharat, moving away from a ‘doctor led’ model to a ‘care accessible and team-based’ model.
• Opportunity to cater to the global demand (shortage) of health care workforce which is projected to be about 15 million by the year 2030, as per the WHO Global Workforce, 2030 report.

Beneficiaries of Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018

• It is estimated that the Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018 will directly benefit around 8-9 Lakh existing Allied and Healthcare related professionals in the country.
• Bill is directed to strengthen the healthcare delivery system at large, it may be said that the entire population of the country and the health sector as a whole will be benefited by this Bill.

Need of this Bill:

• Allied and Healthcare Professionals constitute an important element of the health human resource network.
• The skilled and efficient Allied and Healthcare Professionals can reduce the cost of care and dramatically improve the accessibility to quality driven healthcare services.
• In the current state of the healthcare system, there exist many allied and healthcare professionals, who remain unidentified, unregulated and underutilised.
• The bill is highly focused on efforts towards strengthening limited categories of professionals such as doctors, nurses and frontline workers (like Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHAs, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife or ANMs).
• The Bill thus seeks to establish a robust regulatory framework which will play the role of a standard-setter and regulator for Allied and Healthcare professions.

Source:PIB