The Union Budget 2022 received a mixed response from healthcare professionals in the city. While welcoming the proposed national tele-mental health programme, they expressed disappointment that public expenditure on the sector was not hiked. With the pandemic underlining the need for a robust healthcare infrastructure, industry professionals said the Union government should have allocated at least 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to the sector.

Dr Sujit Chatterjee, the chief executive officer of Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, said the healthcare industry had a lot of expectations from the Union Budget, including a healthy allocation of GDP. “My first expectation from the Union Budget was a realistic view of healthcare. The government must spend a healthy 3.5 per cent of GDP on healthcare. There is hardly anything for healthcare in the Budget. For a nation’s economy to be healthy, the nation [its citizens] first needs to be healthy. It is disappointing for the healthcare sector,” he said.