[Answered] Public Health and Management Cadre (PHMC) can be helpful in ensuring quality health care in government facilities, yet, progress on these fronts was slow. Elaborate.

The National Health Policy, 2017 proposed to create Public Health Management Cadre in all States. Public health cadre are trained professionals responsible for population-wide preventive services to reduce exposure to disease through sanitary and health regulations, monitoring and averting health threats. With trained public health professionals and the support of robust public health regulations, these cadres can contribute to improved health, environment and development outcomes.

How can it be helpful?

• The proposed public health cadre and the health management cadre have the potential to address challenges of a perennial shortage of trained public health workforce.
• The pandemic also revealed the challenges related to management of human resources of health in terms of governance, availability, quality, clarity of roles, etc. In the government hospitals.
• The professionally trained personnel will more efficiently address the specific and complex needs of the Indian health-care delivery system.
• The poor will benefit as this will reduce their out-of-pocket expenditure and dependence on private health care.
• This will also save the resources of specialists by deploying them in areas where they are definitely needed.

However, there are few structural problems in India’s health sector that discourage the growth of this cadre. That is why despite recommendation in NHP, 2017, not much progress has been seen in this area.

Issues:

• Professionals trained in public health have very limited career opportunities unlike specialist cadre of doctors and teaching cadres.
• Among policymakers, there is limited understanding of the roles and the functions of public health specialists and the relevance of such cadres, especially at the district and sub-district levels.
• There is a shortage of trained workforce.

It is time that the National Health Mission and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare work towards creating an appropriate career structure and recruitment policy to attract young and talented multi-disciplinary professionals, with the active involvement of states.