‘We have suggested five As to combat anaemia’

Dr Sudipto Roy is currently national president of Indian Medical Association (IMA). He is a former member of the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly associated with several social service organisations. He is also the honorary advisor of SARAJU, a centre for medical care. In an interview with Joy Roy Choudhury, Dr Roy spoke about the community health and development projects that have envisaged the vision of health for all and have been appreciated at various national and international platforms

What are the issues IMA is campaigning for?

IMA, a body of more than 1.5 lakh-qualified doctors through a network of 1600 local branches, is the world’s biggest NGO with a 75-year old history of community work. It has taken up several ambitious projects, the latest one being its ambitious ‘Aao Gaon Chalen’ programme. Under this ambitious project, IMA will shoulder the responsibility of the provision of positive health to every village in the country.

The project will enable medical professionals to develop a vision and undertake innovations to improve rural health as envisaged in the national health policy. Under the project, a branch of IMA will be adopting the most vulnerable villages according to prevalent major public health problems. Major emphasis will be on the control of epidemics, maternal and child health, geriatric care and adolescent health.

IMA is conducting workshop for state facilitators on implementation of ‘Aao Gaon Chalen’ project in collaboration with UNICEF. One such workshop was recently held at Barog in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. Besides this, IMA is carrying a nationwide campaign on safe injection practices.

What suggestions has the IMA given to the Union Ministry of Health to improve the healthcare system in the country?

IMA has been meeting the Union Health Ministry officials and suggesting several measures to improve the healthcare system in the country. During our deliberations with the Union Health Ministry, we have emphasised on creating more awareness on family planning.

The population of the country is growing at a rapid growth and if we do not take any long-term initiative now, the situation will go out of control.

IMA has emphasised on spreading proper education on birth control, contraception and family planning. Though initiatives have been taken on this count, we feel more needs to be done in this direction. More NGOs should be associated with this.

Spreading literacy about these issues at the grass-root level and implementation of such measures, irrespective of caste, creed and religion is imperative for the development of the country. We have also asked the government to regulate private medical education in the country as most of the private medical colleges in the country are run by corporate houses and are often driven by commercial motive.

What suggestions has the IMA given to the department of health & family welfare, government of West Bengal to improve the healthcare system in the State?

It’s true that the State Government is not in a position to provide quality medical care to the entire population of the state. Considering this fact, we have suggested that the quality of healthcare delivered to the poor patients in private hospitals should be improved. Like the State Government, we also welcome private participation in the healthcare sector.

But the interests of the patients should be due consideration. The government should have a control over these private hospitals and nursing homes as the patients have to incur huge medical expenses without getting proper treatment. For which they often hold the doctors responsible, but in most of the cases this is not true. The private industry should invest in the tertiary healthcare to decrease pressure on the government health system.

The State Government has allowed the private hospitals to offer Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) medical courses in public and private sector hospitals in the State. This is a welcome move and we have urged them to increase the seats so that more doctors can undergo post-graduate courses in their chosen fields.

What do you feel will be the impact of introduction of VAT (Value-Added Tax) on the healthcare industry?

Though it is said that prices of essential drugs won’t increase with the introduction of VAT, but we certainly realise that it will increase the burden on the common man. In India, a very small population is covered under health insurance. So introduction of VAT regime will increase their costs, because Indian households do not earmark a budget for health expenses.

Comment on Union Health Ministry’s suggestion that doctors have to re-register themselves and appear for entrance tests after every five years.

This was suggested by IMA only. IMA passed such a resolution at its working committee meeting in Srinagar in 2001. IMA support re-registration of doctors as this will help in upgrading the skills and knowledge of the medicos. The medicos should attain at least a certain stipulated hours of continuing medical education (CME) in a year to upgrade their skills and knowledge.

From where does IMA get its funding?

IMA being the biggest NGO in the country gets financial assistance from the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare through a membership fee.

Tell us about the future initiatives planned by IMA.

IMA will be launching its ‘Anaemia free India’ campaign on the occasion of Doctors’ Day on July 1, 2005. The health of the women and children is not a priority area in many government and international communities.

IMA is coming up with the idea to launch anaemia free India, so that the health of the mother and child can make the best possible answers in thwarting anaemia prevalent among a large section of rural masses mainly pregnant mothers.

IMA has called for one mantra for anaemia-free India taking cares of five ‘A’s. a) Ask, i.e. what is your haemoglobin? b) Advice, i.e. what it should be? c) Assess, i.e. current Hb level. d) Assist, i.e. providing counseling and how it can be treated with diet, iron-folic acid supplementation and deworming. e) Arrange, i.e. weekly iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation under direct supervision. To make India anaemia- free, strict adherence to the five ‘A’ s is to be taken into consideration. IMA in association with FOGSI and Safe Motherhood Committee is also going to launch ‘Suprabha Ganga Yatra’ starting from Gangasagar in West Bengal to Gaumukh in Uttaranchal covering 2,400 kms between January 18, 2006 and May 2, 2006. Distribution of pregnancy and delivery kits is one of the important aspect of the programme.

joyroychoudhury@expressindia.com