Budget 2024: Medanta's Naresh Trehan Disappointed On Healthcare Allocation

Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of Medanta, said he expected more from Budget 2024 when it comes to healthcare allocation.

"We were expecting a lot but it didn't happen," he said on a panel organised by NDTV. Healthcare allocation should be increased so that the public health system can be reinforced more, he said.

Allocation to different government schemes was lacking, where payment schedules can be enhanced so that all private hospitals can accept schemes like the central government health scheme, Trehan said.

Smaller hospitals "are suffering a lot." Delayed payments and thin budgets are some of the challenges such hospitals are facing, he pointed out. "There is a tightrope walk because of large outstandings. Budgetary allocations can be increased so catch-ups happen."

Goods and Services Tax is paid on all inputs, but there is no credit for it or set-off, the chairman said.

However, he approved of the decision to reduce the cost of cancer drugs.

"Cancer is one of the biggest challenges. The drugs are expensive, and when you add duty on them, it gets more expensive and unaffordable for people, especially the weaker section of society, who come under a huge strain from long treatment. drugs are expensive. So, this will help, of course."

He was also positive about the reduction of duty on x-ray tubes and flat panel detectors, but said that it's a "very small succor," a as the cost of healthcare is going up due to the rising cost of major equipment such as computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging.

"The dollar value is only increasing, so cost has gone up in the last three years hugely. And it is becoming incrementally challenging to keep costs as low as possible because that's what's required for the situation," Trehan said.

There was no relief coming from the government from the last three budgets, he said, adding that he expected input costs to go down so it would be passed to the patient. Instead, they were going up, he said.

"With all the stresses on the delivery of healthcare, if help could come from the government, even if GST was set off for everybody else, we could actually make some provisions for the future," he said.