The Nepal government has allocated Rs 90.69 billion for the health sector for the upcoming fiscal year, around 32 percent more than previous fiscal when Rs 68.78 billion was set aside under the heading.
Although the health sector’s share of the pie has increased to six percent compared to 4.9 percent in the previous year, experts say the fund may not be sufficient to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, and resume regular health services, if the number of cases continue to surge.
The government has allocated Rs 12.46 billion has for the development of infrastructure in health care. Travel allowance of female community health volunteers have been doubled. A sum of Rs 14.27 billion has been allocated to set up 272 health facilities at local levels.
However resumption of regular health services was crucial as a lot of progress made in health over the years has received setbacks due to the pandemic and the budget should have addressed that issue.
Read the full article published in The Kathmandu Post here.
Image credits: Deccan Herald
