Usha Sharma – Mumbai
Aiming to create better awareness among health journalists on issues related to the sector, Heal Foundation recently organised the 4th National Health writers and Editors Convention in Goa. Laxmikant Parsekar, Health Minister, Goa was the Chief Guest for the event. The two-day national convention started with a discussion on the affordability and accessibility of healthcare in the Indian scenario.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, via tele conferencing took part in the event where he said, “We are working to improve the healthcare system in our country. I appreciate the efforts taken by health journalists towards polio eradication. We are coming up with big plans for national health insurance and there are plans to launch the Universal Health Insurance cover in India.”
Vardhan further said, “We would like to boost our traditional treatment methods. Bangladesh has already adopted Siddha, Unani and Ayurveda methods for their medical treatment. We are in talks with the Bangladesh Government to sign an MoU. In Bangladesh, we will be meeting the South East Asian representatives. Both India and Bangladesh are rich in medicinal plants and we would like to ensure that this opportunity can be utilised.”
Parsekar in his speech shared the key milestones of the state’s healthcare scenario. “We have almost zero infant mortality rate in the state. Goa is the only state in the country where government hospitals can invite cardiovascular doctors from anywhere in the country and give services to the patients for free,” said Parsekar.
Commenting on health insurance policies, Parsekar said, “We have finalised the health insurance policies for the entire population in the state. The policies have been framed and apart from some formalities to be completed, we will launch it in the next two months. We are providing concessions to OBCs, STs, and SCs.”
Panel discussions and presentations at the event touched on the affordability and accessibility of healthcare, strengthening quality and innovation for effective healthcare, the dearth of talent and effective management of health resources, misconceptions surrounding health insurance, and the need for inhalation therapy for asthma management. Fighting adulteration in food items, and healthy snacking too were topics on the agenda.
DG Shah, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) gave an update on issues being faced by the Indian pharmaceutical industry due to Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013. He spoke about the recent developments where National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had fixed prices of 108 formulations of two therapeutic segments, cardiovascular and anti-diabetics, extending price control to non-schedule drugs. He also mentioned that the drug monitoring authorities of India are considering to add a few more therapeutic areas under Para 19 of DPCO.
Over the two day conference, a range of speakers spoke on issues pertaining to different segments of the healthcare industry. Ameera Shah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Metropolis Healthcare spoke about the need for guidelines in the diagnostic sector to reduce the wide variation in test results across various labs in the country.
Replying to a question on why India does not have necessary guidelines in place for the diagnostic industry, Shah said that the industry is at a nascent stage. The diagnostic market has a tremendous growth opportunity. It has grown in the last one decade and that is the reason why the market is less regulated. She opines that some regulations need to be in place rather than not having any at all.
She also pointed out that due to lack of awareness and parameters, report results vary from lab to lab. This happens because technicians are not trained and not informed about how to collect samples and this is where they fail to follow the right procedures.
In order to generate awareness about the accreditation procedures for hospitals, Dr KK Kalra, Chief Executive Officer, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) informed that there are more than 3000 hospitals in the country and only 240 hospitals have received an accreditation so far from the NABH. However, in the public sector, 16 hospitals have received NABH accreditation, four are in the pipeline and more than 100 hospitals have applied for accreditation from across the country.
Since asthma is a much misunderstood condition leading to its mismanagement, Dr Sujeet Rajan, Consultant Chest Physician, Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences highlighted the importance of breathometer which helps to monitor respiratory diseases.
Gaurav Malhotra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bourn Hall Clinic India informed about the myths related to infertility in India. There are 1.20 million people affected by the infertility problem in India. Today, in India 30 million couples are suffering from the infertility problem. He mentioned that behind infertility both male and female are involved and female patients are not be blamed alone. In India due to socio psychology, males do not believe in conducting the test, whereas in the reality, the male infertility test costs much lesser that women.