“Health care cannot be left to the private sector, and that Governments must own as their primary responsibility, the health of the people”, opined Dr C.P. Thakur, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the 53rd sesion of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in New Delhi recently.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Thakur informed that lack of resources and growing demand for health services had resulted in the private sector emerging as the dominant provider of curative services in India. The Health minister, however, warned that such profit driven private hospitals have made health care unaffordable and out of reach to large sections of people.

The Health Minister felt that under TRIPS or GATS, there would be profound implications for the health sector in developing countries with fragile economies.

In her address at the inaugural session, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, WHO said, “Health is at the heart of the struggle for sustainable and equitable development. She said improving health is intrinsically a fight against poverty. She lauded the extraodinary progress made by the countries of WHO's South-East Asia Region in their polio eradication efforts. However, she said “to achieve eradication, we need to ensure the highest quality of immunization and surveillance”.