Fund crunch ails TB programme Bindu Shajan Perappadan NEW DELHI, MARCH 06, 2016 00:00 IST UPDATED: MARCH 06, 2016 05:32 IST

Cut in health budget in December 2014 dealt a blow to programme: activists

: Poor funding is hampering the TB programme in India, say health experts.
According to them, the slashing of the health budget by 20 per cent by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in December 2014, citing fiscal deficit and under-utilisation of funds, has led to a setback to the programme.
In 2015, a joint monitoring mission report, put together by government officials and national and international experts, pointed out that the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) is underfunded.
“That didn’t improve things,” said Dr. P.P. Bose, senior consultant, Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, National Heart Institute.
He said: “Drug resistant tuberculosis is the tip of the ice-berg. What we see and what’s unseen, there is a huge difference. There is an urgent need to educate and do more for the society, accept responsibility for our actions, be accountable and take ownership of our problems and stop this resistant bomb destroying the community.”
Doctors complain that the chain of disbursement is also lengthy.
“Funds from the ministries reach the TB department very late and the time to spend that money is very less leading to underutilisation of funds. This coupled with the budget cut means that India’s TB programme is getting severely affected,” said an health activist.
The RNTCP’s National Strategic Plan (NSP) is aimed at significantly increasing the programme’s budget in order to achieve universal access to TB services in India.
“The RNTCP got an approval of Rs. 4,500 crore in the 12th five-year plan. This amount is to be utilised by 2017. The financial management procedures for RNTCP are well established and administered by the Finance Cell of the Central Tuberculosis Division (CTD). However, allocation toward the programme has consistently been below the amount requested by the RNTCP,” an expert said.

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