National Health Policy 2017: All you need to know

New Delhi: Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Thursday said the National Health Policy 2017, would aim at ensuring affordable healthcare services for all at all ages and proposes free diagnostics and drugs at all public hospitals.

Here are some major features of the policy that aims to transform healthcare in India:

• The revolutionary policy aims for attainment of highest possible level of health and well-being for every citizen through a preventive and promotive healthcare orientation.
• It seeks to provide and deliver healthcare services, particularly to underprivileged and socially vulnerable groups of people in the country.
• Under the policy, every family will have a health card for access to primary care facility as well as to defined package of services nationwide.
• Health and hygiene to become part of school curriculum - Yoga would be introduced much more widely in schools and work places as part of promotion of good health.
• The policy aims at increasing life expectancy to 70 years from 67.5 and reduce fertility rate to 2.1 by 2025.
• Reducing premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases by 25% by 2025 is also one of its targets.
• The policy seeks to achieve '90:90:90' global target by 2020 - implying that 90% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of those diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90% of those receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

• It also seeks to reduce the prevalence of blindness to 0.25 per 1000 persons by 2025 and the disease burden by one third from the current levels.
• The policy seeks to achieve and maintain elimination of leprosy by 2018, kala-azar by 2017 and lymphatic filariasis in endemic pockets by 2017.
• The policy envisages a three dimensional integration of AYUSH systems by promoting cross referrals, co-location and integrative practices across systems of medicines.
• The policy also seeks to addres health security and promote Make in India for drugs and devices.
• It seeks to establish a Public Health Management Cadre (PHMC) in all states.
• It also proposes rising public health expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP in a time bound manner.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Health Policy 2017 which has come after a gap of 15 years to address the current and emerging challenges in epedemiology. The Health Ministry has formulated the new health policy, under the guidance of Prime minister Nrendra Modi. The last National health Policy was framed in 2002.