One nation, one authority concept is a super power step towards better administration of health, food and drugs.NHA could be world’s largest FDA that will take care overall healthcare system of India. India is super power in manufacturing and fulfilling global demand of 20% medicine.NHA could be the world’s super power authority.

                  A step ahead towards health security. India in process of setting up National Digital Health Authority with statutory penal powers that can issue orders to its state counterparts rather than the “advisories”. National Health Authority will be chaired by the Health Minister with the Niti Aayog being its administrative body.The NHA, for all practical purposes, will report directly to the Prime Minister’s office and will stay at “arm’s length” from the Union Health Ministry.

                 This will be an autonomous body initially formed by an executive order like the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) but will eventually need statutory backing. As per J P Nadda, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, the ministry is progressing rapidly in the process of setting NHA which will act as the statutory body for creating guidelines, frameworks and regulations. Mr Nadda said that the digital revolution is yet to be implemented in India on a massive scale and once NHA is setup, major healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurse and staff can deliver better service to the patients.

                 Point to be noted pharmacist has nothing to do with the NHA policy, government is talking about doctors and nurses only. The minister said that the National Health Policy (2017) of India clearly conveys three distinct goals for aspiring healthcare professionals of India. The first and foremost goal is to use electronic mediums for gathering district-level health database by 2020. This certainly means avoiding paper-based methods of collecting the data, thereby enhancing the use of computerized tools for the betterment of hospital functionality.

                The second goal is to reinforce health surveillance system. This can be achieved by establishing registries for a specific disease of the public by 2020. Registries help in tracking the disease more specifically. It will also enhance epidemiological profiling of diseases. The third goal focuses towards the establishment of federated national eHealth architecture. This will help in setting up national health info and health info exchanges by 2025. NHA is the need of hour but we will see how successfully last over batting can do magic in luring heart of voters.

Mohammad Shabaz Alam Member RDM