Approval of Ayushman Bharat in the very first cabinet meeting of the newly formed government in West Bengal is not merely a fulfilment of an electoral promise, but much more. The major shift clearly signals towards convergence of the state with the national mainstream and alignment of healthcare delivery more closely with the national health financing and governance framework.
West Bengal stands at a defining moment of a health care system crisis. After years of institutional decay, fragile healthcare, poor outreach, fragmented recruitment system, governance failure, political misadventure, corruption, unregulated middlemen (“touts”), we ak accountability, and erosion of public trust, the challenge before the new government is to rebuild its credibility from the ground up. A functioning health system must guarantee equitable access, organizational discipline and efficient resource allocation. West Bengal has progressively weakened across all these dimensions.
With a population of nearly 99 million, one of the highest population densities in India, and substantial rural and vulnerable populations requiring equitable access to healthcare, the challenge is enormous. Reform in the health sector is high on the agenda of the new Government. A couple of days after assuming office, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari discussed with health officials immediate measures like real-time monitoring of bed availability across government hospitals, ensuring zero patient refusal, institutional coordination to explore seamless patient referral to Central or private hospital networks (which have 10-15 per cent free bed agreements) in the event of bed shortages in state-run facilities, ambulance tracking in real time, enforcing zero tolerance against touts and corruption networks, strengthening of hospital security and so on.
The first task of the new government must be restoring operational discipline and public trust. Equally important is implementation of an e-filing system to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in administration for time-bound decision-making, real-time monitoring, and meaningful communication between state headquarters, districts, sub-districts and beyond.
Rapid comprehensive resource mapping within the first few months would help identify shortages, underutilized facilities, critical gaps in rural and vulnerable areas, and priorities for immediate intervention and long-term health system strengthening. Complexities of the challenges for strengthening the health system of West Bengal are deeply rooted in fragmented financing, weak district health services, overcrowded tertiary hospitals, manpower shortages, poor governance, and inadequate regulation of the rapidly expanding private healthcare sector.
The focus must be on measurable performance indicators like quality, efficiency, utilization, access, learning, sustainability, health outcomes, financial protection, and public satisfaction. Attention should be on transparent recruitment , strengthening primary healthcare, streamlining service delivery, uninterrupted supply chains, and stronger referral linkages. Strategic stewardship through intelligent planning, strong regulation, accreditation systems, coordination between health and non-health sectors, and integration of the private sector into broader state health planning is important.
Digital health as a system enabler must also be fully utilized for surveillance, interoperability, telemedicine, referral systems, and accountability. Meaningful integration of mobile-based digital platforms with health systems can strengthen outreach services, improve efficiency, support evidence-based planning , and build resilient, transparent, and people-centered healthcare systems. Primary healthcare remains the backbone of the health system.
“Ayushman Arogya Mandir” which the previous Government was reluctant to rebrand, now needs to be transformed into functional comprehensive primary healthcare hubs bringing healthcare services closer to the homes of people, particularly in underserved rural, peri-urban, and vulnerable communities. The new government under strong leadership has a historic opportunity to transform the state struggling with health system fatigue into a national model of equitable, resilient, and people-¬centric healthcare with s strong political will to critically empower every citizen in accomplishing rights of health and wellbeing aligning with the Prime Minister’s vision of Viksit Bharat.
(The writer is former Principal Advisor, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.)