Setting up of Health Regulatory Body and free medicines for the needy

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha proposed to set up the National Commission for Human Resources for Health (NCHRH) under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as an overarching regulatory body for medical education and allied health sciences with a dual purpose of reforming the current regulatory framework and enhancing the supply of skilled manpower in the health sector. 

The NCHRH Bill has already been introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 22nd December 2011, which had referred the Bill to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare for examination. The Commission would subsume all the existing councils regulating the education in medicine and allied sciences viz., Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Nursing Council of India and Pharmacy Council of India and replace them with corresponding new Councils. 

In addition to this, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is providing additional support under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for overall health system strengthening including support for provision of free drugs in public health facilities. Under NRHM, a new initiative called Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) has been launched under which funding is given to the States for providing medicines free of cost to all pregnant women who access the Government health facilities for delivery as well as sick neonates born to them up to 30 days after birth.