WHO urges India to provide affordable healthcare service

She was speaking at the five-day WHO Regional Committee meeting held in Dili, Timor-Leste, attended by Health Ministers and high-level ministerial delegations of 11 member countries, where Universal Health Coverage (UHC) figured prominently.

WHO stressed that action for UHC needs to take into account changing health needs.

With the increase in non-communicable diseases and the rise in numbers of the elderly, often with multiple health conditions, a new thinking is needed on ways to deliver health services, it said.

"We need to learn more about new service delivery models that aim to give people access to the care they need, when they need it, without suffering financial hardship. The question is how well they are working," said Singh.

Singh said that governments need to invest more into strengthening their health workforce which is key to expanding quality health services.

She said that improved delivery of services needs to happen in parallel with improved financing if real progress on UHC is to be made. "The number of poor people paying out of their own pocket for care when they are sick needs to be reduced as this increases their hardship," WHO said in a statement.

It said that patient safety is another area central to advancing UHC as people will not use services they think are unsafe. Though countries in the Region have been making efforts, a lot more needs to be done, Singh said.