Budget 2018 Expectations – Manish Sacheti, CFO, Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd.

“We hope that the Union Budget 2018-19 offers a major relief to the healthcare scenario in our country. While the Government has introduced various amendments in the budget last year there are still persistent issues which should be addressed this year. With more than 68% of people living in the rural areas, amendments should be made for better public healthcare services in the interiors of the country. Investments should be made in increasing the number of health professionals in the public health sector. Also, very little importance is given to the Emergency Medical Services which plays a crucial part in saving lives of people. The Government should invest in establishing skill centres which can train paramedics who are well versed in handling accidents and various other emergencies, as this will help the quality of emergency response services in our country. The government should allocate budget to develop technology that will help in reducing the time taken for an ambulance to reach the emergency. This can be in form of advanced GPS technology, live traffic monitoring and updates, fitness devices that can monitor health and transfer emergency signals in real time. If a push is given to the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) sector, it will, in turn help the healthcare professionals to save more lives.”