The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has planned to launch an initiative in which it will act as a think tank as well as a support and pressure group to the government at the national and state levels to get health to the lead of the agenda among political parties.

On Thursday, Dr Avinash Bhond we, president-elect, IMA (Maharashtra), said that the ‘Health First’ initiative purpose is to provide a holistic approach to the healthcare sector with the common man as a focal point.

On Thursday, the IMA,released a health statementas it has more than 3 lakh modern medicine doctors as direct members across the country and another 5 lakh indirect members through its wings such as junior doctor network, medical students network, federation of medical association and women’s wing.

Bhond we said, in their manifesto, they had demanded increased public expenditure in healthcare, universal health coverage through government funding, private-public partnership facilitated by not-for-profit institutions, importance on primary care and rural healthcare, structured universal three-tier reference system, primary, secondary and tertiary care, no criminalization of medical profession, and public funded quality medical education, governed by autonomous democratic regulation.

Dr Hozie Kapadia, president of IMA (Maharashtra) said that the allocation of 1.1 per cent of GDP for health services tells volumes about the apathy of successive governments towards this important determinant of social and economic progress of a nation.

Among its added demands: there should be no dilution of scientific concepts in curriculum and no traditional system of treatment should be mainstreamed, the autonomy, democratic nature and federal structure of regulatory bodies and academic institutions should be maintained, self-governance of medical and allied professionals should be guaranteed and all states should be represented in decision making and the democratically elected Medical Council of India should be restored. It also said a Medical Grants Commission should be set up to fund medical education, co-coordinating between medical universities and safeguarding advanced research in medicine.

IMA office bearers said there was a necessity for incentive based approach with improved administration and infrastructure to tackle scarcity of medical manpower. The IMA has also sought for a strong, Central government law to prevent violence against healthcare providers and a reformation of the Ayushmaan Bharat programme with convincing package rates and suitable disbursal of funds.