Choice is going to be cornerstone for healthcare in future
Bejon Misra, Founder, Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation and Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India Initiative in his address, thanked the jury members comprising Dr KK Kalra and Dr Ratna Devi for their support and guidance in deciding the deserving winners. He also appealed to all present at the occasion to file more nominations in the future and compete with each other to understand where they stand when it comes to healthcare delivery according to the parameters set by The Express Group.
Misra then lauded the hospitals who participated in the awards for their commendable work through the years. “India’s private healthcare sector has been a great contributor to the country healthcare system. The healthcare scenario would have been in a worse state had it not been for the efforts of the private sector,” he maintained.
He stated that the government doesn’t even contribute 20 per cent of the country’s healthcare delivery system. 80 per cent of the country’s healthcare is delivered by the private sector. He then spoke about how everyone wants UHC and how Ayushman Bharat plays a crucial role in this mission. Ayushman Bharat’s prime motive is to provide quality healthcare to all and how healthcare delivery cost is a very relative term. The most important parameter for healthcare is quality and that the country must focus on building better regulations for quality standards.
Encouraging hospitals to seek accreditation, he said that NABH has brought in some kind of standard which certain hospitals have agreed to abide by. The numbers are very few and they definitely aren’t very encouraging. He went on to say that, NABH today has become a differentiator for hospitals who have been accredited. These standards help hospitals to become patient centric and focus on quality standards.
“Choice is going to be the fundamental cornerstone in the healthcare delivery system in the coming years. We as patients have always wanted an informed choice,” Misra echoed. Talking about the government’s proactive steps to improve healthcare funding and encouragng the private sector to partner with the government, he said, “Now the government has increased the GDP spend on healthcare to 2.25 per cent. In due course of time it can be taken to 5-10 per cent. That money is going to trigger the change as that money is going to go to the private sector. The private sector has always claimed that they take care of the poor with free treatment of 5-10 per cent. Now Ayushman Bharat is going to pay for free treatments. He encouraged everyone to join the Ayushman Bharat scheme to understand losses, how money would be recovered for the losses.”
He further added that we need to convince the government that 15 per cent incentive should be given to NABH accredited hospitals and 10 per cent for entry level hospitals which can be increased further as more hospitals get empanelled to NABH. On an ending note he congratulated all the winners and thanked everyone for the tremendous work done by them for the healthcare industry.
Listening Prof Bejon Mishra today on India Today debate anchored by Rahul Kanwal and others. The debate was quite timely but Mr Bejon’s comment against Doctor’s community was rather unwanted on a national TV media live. There are many truths that could be talked about, e.g., the most damaging and distasteful issue in Indian life is the political interference in everything. Will Mr Bejon Mishra comment on this issue and stop every politician politicising the every life? Indians have to leave this country for shinning in their life and carrier. I am not sure if Mr Mishra has even a remote relative who is a doctor. When I stayed in UK for more than a decade, many wards of politicians were living there but none will ask them to come bavck and serve in rural India. Sad but big lectures far away from realities full of hollow philosophical lectures and remote from realities. I request Mr Bejon to kindly study the origin of current British Health care system. If anyone wants to discuss it with me, I have tried to collate and compound the healthcare delivery in our country starting from the remotest rural belt of mere less than hundred ppl to the most thickly populated urban bed. We must stop copying the Western nations and learn to think Indian and plan things accordingly. It scares me to hear building newer 75 more Medical Colleges but where are the faculties? Can you create them also by purchasing? Why are Indians leaving for other countries? Study these things sincerely if we truly want to build our healthcare delivery system. I see the abolition of MCI for NMC but it may not prove yet again the old wine in new bottle. This is my worry. I returned back to India leaving my permanent UK job in NHS and refused British passport only see that things have gone from bad to worse. Perhaps Mr Modi (PM) is trying his best but he cannot be expected to be the all knower. Hence his concepts about manning our health sector worry me. It makes me sadder when I hear and see these TV debates with all knower ppl. Regards and no malice for anyone but concerned for the India and her vast # of ppl liberated from long slavery. God help us all.
Dr. Om P Sudrania, Emeritus Professor.
For manning our rural health sector, we must start recreating the old LMP/LMF trained health professional. It will help in many ways.
1. Help in creating more jobs for lower-rung youth with the tenth class stream. These young ppl shall be entered in a course for three years of both, theory and practical together meant for treating common day to day health problems.
2. These ppl shall stay put in the rural areas most of them to avoid harsh competition in urban places.
3. Cost of producing such manpower will also be cheaper comparing to MBBS who should be better preserved for higher health centers independently or under a specialist. Hence a ladder-pattern of healthcare delivery system must be planned at the national level.
4. Political interference is killing everything, e.g. a Health Minister is made for political clouts, like the worthy son of Mr. Lalu Yadav, why blame doctors for taking cuts from pharmas?
Dr. Om P Sudrania, Emeritus Professor, Surgery (Gastro).