Healthcare in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

features a

universal health care Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...

system run by the state and the federal governments. The

Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

charges every

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

with "raising of the level of

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

and the

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...

of its people and the improvement of

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

as among its primary duties". Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

is responsible for administering and funding the public hospital system in the state. The entire state population is covered by a health insurance, either provided by their employer or the Employees’ State Insurance (if the employee’s salary is up Rs 21000/month). Other categories of people (low-income, self-employed, the unemployed or the retired etc.) are covered under the state’s public health insurance scheme (Swasthya Sathi). As of 2021, the total public healthcare budget of the state is , out of which was earmarked for public hospitals, was to be spent on the public health insurance program (Swasthya Sathi) and is to be spent on primary health services. An additional , outside the official health budget, was to be spent on health insurance coverage for the current and retired employees of the state government. Healthcare forms roughly 4.5% of the state's entire budget which critics say should be increased to at least 8% in line with the

National Health Policy The central government of India periodically publishes a National Health Policy (NHP) to guide future health programs. In 1979 the '' Journal of the Indian Medical Association'' published a review of the policy. There has been 3 NHPs by Government ...

.http://wbfin.nic.in/writereaddata/Budget_Speech/2021_English.pdf

Healthcare infrastructure

The health care infrastructure is divided into three tiers — the primary health-care network, a secondary care system comprising district and sub-divisional hospitals and tertiary hospitals providing specialty and super specialty care. A Chief Medical Officer of Health (C.M.O.H.) heads each of the eighteen districts. The responsibility of CMOH is to manage the primary health care sector and ensure the effective implementation of the various medical, health and family welfare programmes. The secondary level hospitals (sub-divisional and district hospitals) are headed by superintendents who report to the C.M.O.H. and are accountable to a hospital management committee. At the block level, the Block Medical Officer of Health (BMOH) is responsible for providing services and for monitoring and supervising the primary health centres and health programme implementation. Mchbuilding

West Bengal Health Service provides the health care professionals for the statewide infrastructure, while Medical Education Service employs teachers at the training institutions. The number and beds sanctioned in different types of healthcare setup, as published by the government of West Bengal, are in the following table. In this table, hospitals under other departments of state government include government undertaking organisations, and rural hospitals include those ones which were upgraded from block primary health centre.

Healthcare indices

Following table illustrates some health care indicators of the state, compared to the national indicator, and comparison with some major states that fared better than West Bengal (states with population 20 millions or more as of 2011 national census were considered as major states for this table). These data are based on

Sample Registration System Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

of Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.

Healthcare issues

References

{{reflist Health in West Bengal