Chief Editor : Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, M.D.
Improving Patient & Family Health
July’2012
Pink Revolution of HealtHcaRe in india Let us start a PINK REVOLUTION of HEALTHCARE in INDIA, by investing 10% of GDP in public healthcare by the Govt now, from a shockingly low 1%!. Only 7 countries all round the world, spend less than we do, to look after the health of citizens! 230 Indian mothers die during childbirth, compared to 50 per 1 lakh childbirths in other BRIC countries. 66 Indian children under 5 yrs die in India, compared to 20 in other BRIC countries. Excellent facilities in hospitals, Primary Health Centres, for preventive & curative treatments, in the Government sector can and should be made possible with more funding and support. 400 million poor people need this kind of support badly and immediately. Indians have a RIGHT TO LIFE, and a RIGHT TO HEALTH is a vital part of this constitutional right. It is a duty of the Govt to provide good hospitals and medicines for all citizens now. Remember that we need to help the millions of poor underprivileged citizens of our country, and increasing and upgrading the Govt healthcare system is vital and paramount to this goal. So much suffering of the poor is due to illness, and this needs to be sorted out now. Private healthcare will never be able to do so many of the things the Govt healthcare system does in India, and around the world. The recent plan to increase spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2017 is too little, too late, and totally inadequate. We can and should do much more to help the 400 million Indians who are below the official poverty line of Rs 32/day. Severe or moderate illness episode in the life of these impoverished millions is enough to set them back in life even more & erase their already slim chances of improving their living conditions. And sanitation, clean water, health education, also need to be improved side by side with this also. A toilet in every house, clean drinking water, sewage & electricity connections to each house in India in needed now. Internet based and citizen based monitoring of spending and other controls can be implemented for effective funds utilisation.
Yes, we have to also work towards prevention of corruption in healthcare, as we do have to in other sectors. But it should not stop investment now. Corruption is not an excuse for the measly healthcare allocation that we have tolerated in india for so long. Let us all wake up and help our poor fellow citizens by this awesome step of vastly increased funding & healthcare up gradation by the Govt. Girish.K, Please sign the petition at http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Pink_Revolution_of_Healthcare_in_India/?cIelYbb P T N
Dr Prathap Reddy Speaking at the event organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Dr Reddy lauded the ongoing efforts in the US to digitize healthcare data through Electronic Medical Records and hoped that such techniques would be brought to India as well. He also acknowledged the tremendous contributions made by research organizations in the US in diagnosis, methodology, innovation, research and technology in the healthcare sector. Applying existing innovations from US, Europe and other parts to countries like India is thus critical, said Dr Reddy who pioneered the concept of corporate hospitals in India in the eighties after returning from the US where he had a very successful practice as a leading heart surgeon. "The three biggest challenges India faces in the healthcare sector are: paucity of hospital beds for people; lack of skilled health human resources; and rise in both infectious and non-communicable diseases," he said. India is facing alarming numbers of cases of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, Dr Reddy said. For example, the number of diabetes cases in India, earlier projected at 36 million by 2020, has already surpassed 75 million. Soon, one out of every five diabetic patient in the world will be Indian. Noting that comparable surgeries in India cost onetenth of the price in the US, he said high quality healthcare and cost benefit is hence a major priority area.