Eleventh Five Year Plan

Health and Family Welfare and AYUSH 109sector trends suggest that no single system ofhealth care has the capacity to solve all of society’shealth needs. India can be a world leader in the era ofintegrative medicine because it has strong foundationsin Western biomedical sciences and an immensely richand mature indigenous medical heritage of its own.VISION FOR AYUSH3.2.2 To mainstream AYUSH by designing strategicinterventions for wider utilization of AYUSH bothdomestically and globally, the thrust areas in the EleventhFive YearPlan are: strengthening professional education,strategic research programmes, promotion ofbest clinical practices, technology upgradation inindustry, setting internationally acceptable pharmacopoeialstandards, conserving medicinal flora, fauna,metals, and minerals, utilizing human resources ofAYUSH in the national health programmes, with theultimate aim of enhancing the outreach of AYUSHhealth care in an accessible, acceptable, affordable, andqualitative manner.CURRENT SCENARIO AND CHALLENGES3.2.3 During the Tenth Plan, the Department continuedto lay emphasis on upgradation of AYUSHeducational standards, quality control, and standardizationof drugs, improving the availability of medicinalplant material, R&D, and awareness generationabout the efficacy of the systems domestically andinternationally. Steps were taken in 2006–07 formainstreaming AYUSH under NRHM with the objectiveof optimum utilization of AYUSH for meetingthe unmet needs of the population.Health Care Services under AYUSH3.2.4 The AYUSH sector across the country supporteda network of 3203 hospitals and 21351 dispensaries.The health services provided by this network largelyfocused on primary health care. The sector has a marginalpresence in secondary and tertiary health care.In the private and not-for-profit sector, there areseveral thousand AYUSH clinics and around 250hospitals and nursing homes for in patient care andspecialized therapies like Panchkarma.3.2.5 In clinics and nursing homes there are anecdotalreports of the role of AYUSH in the successfulmanagement of several communicable and noncommunicablediseases. However, there is no macrodataavailable about the contribution of AYUSH tomajor national programmes for the management ofcommunicable and NCDs. System and State-wisedetails of hospitals and dispensaries under AYUSHhave been provided in Annexures 3.2.1 and 3.2.2. Amajor challenge in Eleventh Five Year Plan is to identifyreputed clinical centres and support upgradationof their facilities via PPP schemes so that the countrycan boast of a national network of high-quality clinicalfacilities developed for rendering specialized healthcare in strength areas of AYUSH.AYUSH under NRHM3.2.6 Despite having a different scheme of diagnosis,drug requirements, and treatments as compared tothe mainstream health care system, preliminary effortsto integrate AYUSH in NRHM were initiated duringthe Tenth Plan. The AYUSH interventions underNRHM have been depicted in Box 3.2.1. It is too earlyto assess if the AYUSH interventions in NRHM havehad significant health impact by way of complementingthe conventional national health programmes.Integrating AYUSH into NRHM has the potential ofenhancing both the quality and outreach of NRHM,especially with the availability of a large number ofpractitioners in this field (Table 3.2.1). Supportingstrategic pilot action research projects in the EleventhFive Year Plan to evolve viable models of integrationseems necessary.Box 3.2.1AYUSH Interventions under NRHM• Co-location of AYUSH dispensaries in 3528 PHCs indifferent States.• Appointment of 452 AYUSH doctors and paramedics(pharmacists) on contractual basis in the primaryhealth care system.• Inclusion of AYUSH modules in training of ASHA.• Inclusion of Punarnavdi Mandoor in the ASHA Kit formanagement of anaemia during pregnancy.• Inclusion of seven Ayurvedic and five Unani medicinesin the RCH programme.• Establishment of specialty clinics, specialized therapycentres, and AYUSH wings in district hospitals supportedthrough CSS.