New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS): As India has stepped into the 75th year of Independence with the looming threat of third Covid wave, Dr. MC Mishra, former Director at AIIMS, holds less expenditure on health as a big hurdle in providing quality treatment to all across the nation.

Talking to IANS, Dr Mishra said: "We are spending slightly more than one per cent of GDP in healthcare while European nations like United Kingdom, Netherlands, New Zealand, and others spend over 9 per cent of their total GDP in public healthcare system. Spending optimum amount can only ensure total public health."

He said that India has advanced towards public health in these 74 years of post-independence, but the primary health sector still needs to be addressed more efficiently.

"If we are hoping to lessen the burdens of the secondary and tertiary sector, the government has to strengthen the primary health sector in the rural area to provide quality healthcare at the doorstep," added Dr. Mishra.

On the proportion of the Doctor and Patient ratio, he opined to inculcate other traditional healthcare systems of India also while calculating the number.

He said, "We should include the Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayush Doctors together as they are also serving and provide treatment at primary levels." He opined to cover all prevalent systems of health care in a single ambit.

Being asked about India's healthcare system during pandemic, he said India has managed the pandemic and the public-private partnership in providing better healthcare should continue beyond the pandemic, taking care of affordability issues for the common man where the government can intervene.

Deliberating on challenges, he added that affordability is a major concern for the common folk in private hospitals but the government should prepare a mechanism to address this issue for public health.