National Council of Applied Economic Research

Abstract

The National Health Policy (NHP) 2002 has recently been announced with the main objective of achieving an acceptable standard of good health among the general population of the country. The NHP-2002 clearly defines the role of the central government and the stale governments in the public health sector of the country. The NHP-2002 advocates an increase in aggregate public health investment through a substantially increased contribution by the central government. Importance will be given to preventive and first line curative initiatives at the primary health level through increased sectoral share of allocation. The NHP 2002 acknowledges that the existing public health infrastructure is far from satisfactory and the funding is generally insufficient. The states are facing a number of problems relating to efficient deployment of workforce and optimal use of their resources including physical infrastructure. Given this background, the present study was commissioned to examine workforce management options and the rationalisation of the infrastructure of primary health care.