The Wellness Workforce

Context: Government’s recognition of allied healthcare professionals as a safety net and the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2020, has the potential to overhaul the entire allied health workforce.

Evolution of National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill (NCAHP), 2020:

• 1990’s: Initial efforts at regulating allied health professions were participatory.
• 2015: The first draft Bill was uploaded on the health ministry’s website.
• 2018: The revised “Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill” was introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
• 2020: The government accepted 102 recommendations out of 110 recommendations made by health department-related parliamentary standing committee and resulting in the passing of NCAHP in Parliament.

Programmatic interventions in healthcare delivery:

• Ayushman Bharat (2017) with its two pillars of Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) emphasizes wellness in primary healthcare and also operationalised certain critical recommendations of the National Health Policy, 2017.

Important features of NCAHP, 2020: It provides for -

• Regulation and maintenance of standards of education and services: by allied and healthcare professionals. It recognizes 50 such professions like physiotherapist, optometrist etc.
  • Previously these professions lacked a comprehensive regulatory mechanism.
• Classification of allied professionals: Using the International System of Classification of Occupations (ISCO code), which facilitates global mobility and enables better opportunities for such professionals.
• Establishes a National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions: It will be supported by 10 professional councils to frame policies and standards, regulate professional conduct, prescribe qualifications, create and maintain a central register.
• Incorporates the demands and recommendations of states:  Bill has the provision for state councils to execute major functions through autonomous boards.
  • The state councils are the implementation agencies, while the National Commission is the overarching body devising policies. 

Way forward:

• Need of perception change in delivering healthcare: To address the stress of modern lifestyle, rapid urbanization, rising chronic non-communicable disease burden.
  • Increasing proportion of elderly from 5.3% in 1950 to an estimated 10% in 2020 and expected to increase to 19% by 2050).
• Need of trained workforce: To care for patients with mental conditions, the elderly, those in need of palliative services, and for enabling professional services for a lifestyle change.