New Delhi, Nov 30 (UNI) NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Friday that efforts must be made towards breaking silos between various stakeholders in the health space, remove fragmentation between various initiatives, and ensure convergence between various ministries and also between Centre and States.

“Dialogue is a sign that Health has taken center-stage of the policy narrative.

'We must move towards breaking silos between various stakeholders in the health space, remove fragmentation between various initiatives, and ensure convergence between various ministries and also between Centre and States,' Dr Kumar said, addressing the closing plenary in dialogue on “Health System for A New India: Building Blocks”, with national and international academia, practitioners, Indian policymakers and other stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem..

'POSHAN Abhiyan and Ayushman Bharat can be an innovative model to view integrated health systems”, said Dr Kumar.

The dialogue focused on strengthening and further building on the existing blocks for Health Systems for a New India and prioritised four critical health systems issues for discussion and debate.

These included expanding resources for health through pooling existing funds; expanding the role of the government as a strategic purchaser from both public and private providers to improve quality of healthcare services; provision of equitable and integrated services; and leveraging technology as an enabler and aggregator.

The dialogue also deliberated convergence of fragmented building blocks of financing and service provision, with each reinforcing the other, and moving from programmatic or schematic approaches to a systems approach to healthcare.

The dialogue was the first in the series of NITI Aayog’s “Development Dialogues” that aims to facilitate multisectoral conversations on India’s developmental issues, which constitute a part of the country’s 15 Year Vision document.

The inaugural session was chaired by Dr Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and included the participation of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, and NITI Aayog Adviser Alok Kumar.

Dr Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Global Health Advisor, Government of Thailand gave the keynote address detailing Thailand’s four-decade journey towards Universal Health Coverage.

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