POLICY India's G20 Presidencymust focus on primaryhealthcare that commits to universal,affordable healthcare system

As India heads towards G20 Presidency in 2023 while championing the virtue of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam”- the world is one family as its message, the opportunity is anteing up the expectations of a worldclass healthcare system as the primary road map. It is imperative after the COVID-19 pandemic that India emanate prolific results from its G20 Presidency 2023 and bring universal healthcare to the central focus of G20 2023’s agenda for global welfare. The foremost driving factors anticipated for India’s G20 Presidency in 2023 can be health innovation, improving healthcare infrastructure and the creation of PHC-UHC (primary healthcare with universal healthcare coverage).

ered together in a meeting arranged under the German presidency. It concluded with the Berlin Declaration 2017 of G20 health ministers, where an integrated approach aimed at strengthening the healthcare system, addressing antimicrobial resistance and pandemic preparedness emerged.

sectors.

◆ Adopt appropriate technology and ensure its application for granting equitable access to medicines, pharmaceutical products, vaccines and integrative health systems.

◆ Provide ease of access to health-related knowledge for all.

◆ Increasing patient-centric healthcare infrastructure can prove helpful.

◆ Understanding health and healthcare from the perspective of the marginalised sector, indigenous people globally, gendered healthcare needs, etc., must be the objective.

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India's G20 Presidency2023 focus on universal healthcare coverage?

India is home to the secondhighest number of patients, with inching towards 80 million people living with diabetes. The number of people living with diabetes across the globe is 537 million, which is expected to reach 784 million by the year 2045. On the other hand, India also accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s cardiovascular disease burden (heart disease) and increasing p revalence of many disease burdens. The data indicates the dire need for a healthcare infrastructure which can cater to pandemics like COVID-19 and non-communicable disease burdens from the primary to the universal level.

When G20 deliberations included health as one of the triages in 2017, it laid the foun- dation to create an interlink between primary and universal healthcare. It was then the first time that health ministers of G20 countries gath-

These efforts led to the inclusion of health finance in G20’s financial stream and health systems development in the Sherpa stream. The formation of joint health and finance task force and annual meets of health ministers certainly reflected the importance health has received at international fora. With the addition of COVID-19 pandemic factors, healthcare has become the prime focus of G20’s future endeavours, which the Indian Presidency requires to advance further in 2023.

HowIndia’s G20 presidencycan help expand diabetes care?

With a focus on building primary healthcare that commits to providing universal, affordable healthcare services, diabetes care in India also requires an extensive push to reach even the remotest part of the world. Under India’s G20 Presidency following actions should be considered:

◆ To design a healthcare system that serves community needs at the primary level in local, regional, national and international standards.

◆ Health should be made a central subject and included in all policies among all

Time to optimise India’s G20 Presidency2023 for global health-welfare Advances in technology have undoubtedly moulded the Indian healthcare infrastructure into a reliable, technologically upgraded one and enabled it to be able to cater to the needs of the large population. Ho wever, substantial measures have yet to be adopted to transform presentday healthcare into a worldclass system. And India’s G20 Presidency is one such opportunity. The emphasis should be on cost-effective and affordable healthcare along with people empowering healthcare as G20 comprising G7 high-income countries is the most appropriate platform to take up a long-pending makeover of the healthcare system that moves a declaration on sustainable and empowering healthcare for the 21st century.