5th India Health Summit

'We Should Focus on Preventive Measures'

The Government of India is working on medical devices legislation, in order to standardise the quality of Indian manufactured medical devices

Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Minister for Science & Technology

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Hon'ble Health Minister

N K Sethi, Advisor, Planning Commission and Dr Naresh Trehan, President, IHCF

Most of our healthcare systems look at treating a disease, when one is inflicted with it, rather than following preventive measures. Can we follow a preventive healthcare approach; by providing clean drinking water, sanitation, first class hygienic housing, and pollution free environment to our population, questioned Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India.

He was speaking at the inaugural session 5th India Health Summit on 'Optimising Healthcare Delivery in India: A Patient Centric Approach', jointly organised here today by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Indian Healthcare Federation. Sibal also inaugurated the exposition organised in Delhi together with the summit.

The summit witnessed several sessions by eminent speakers from India and abroad on varied issues like healthcare reforms: optimising healthcare delivery, successful states healthcare models: accessibility and affordability, addressing manpower shortage: creating the skill sets for patient care, health insurance inc: the road ahead, investments in healthcare, models of healthcare delivery: integrating innovation with consumerism, delivering quality healthcare: creating patient value and technology as an enabler, healthcare IT and medical technology.

Sibal informed that the Government of India is working on medical devices legislation, in order to standardise the quality of Indian manufactured medical devices. Amongst the other four key areas underlined by Sibal were greater R&D in the field of technology and genomics focussed on target drugging, vaccinations and innovative solutions, manufacturing and managing medical devices domestically, delivery of quality human resource and affordability.

Throwing light on PPP (Public Private Partnership) arrangements, Dr Naresh Trehan, President, Indian Healthcare Federation, stated, "PPP is one the major pillars on how we can provide healthcare to all segments of society, especially in the rural area." Delving upon community care models and innovations, Dr Vikram Chhatwal, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Health, stated, "The economy needs a comprehensive framework for effective diseases management accessible to the grassroots base of population." Sharing his thoughts on ideal models for the healthcare sector, Shivinder Mohan Singh, Managing Director and CEO, Fortis Healthcare opined that rather than increasing spending on healthcare, improved spending will fetch better results. He further commented that the central Government should be an effective regulator, than being a supplier.

Addressing the theme of accessibility and affordability, Ashok Kumar, Deputy Director General and Head, Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, Government of India said that the Government is now planning to prioritise the national healthcare needs so that a better mechanism could be put in place to improve the entire healthcare delivery system in the country.

He highlighted that in India 80 per cent of the healthcare expenditure is borne by the patients and less than 10 per cent of the population is covered. As a result, the price sensitivity is quite high and the quality healthcare facilities cannot be accessed by majority of the population therefore Government's intervention in the form of some policy reforms or some regulatory relaxations becomes pertinent.

Opining on the huge gap of trained manpower, Dr Narottam Puri, President Medical Strategy and Quality, Fortis Healthcare, said, "There has been a falling demand for medicine as a career, obsolete curriculum further aggravated by pathetic situation of working healthcare professionals. Looking at such dismaying ratio of healthcare professionals, India needs to come up with strategies that will fill this gap and take care of the booming Indian healthcare economy which is slated to become a $75 billion industry by 2012." He also highlighted the need to mainstream nursing and paramedic staff in the system.

Addressing the major issue of manpower constraint, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India emphasised on the efforts made to tackle the manpower shortage. He stated, "We are in process to recognising post graduate (PG) degrees from English speaking countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, apart from doubling the PG pass-out number which at present stands at 12,000." In light of tremendous achievement under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), he underlined that the ministry will come up with programmes like National Urban Health Mission, National School Programme and Emergency and Trauma Programmes.

Some other medical educational reforms that the ministry is working on, as highlighted by Dr Ramadoss are parity in DNB and MCI courses, changing the MCI regulations in terms of land requirement of 25 acres at two places within a distance of 15 km. He also highlighted on the policy initiative where private hospitals can tie up with district hospitals and start educational institutions.

The summit was held in New Delhi from15th and 16th December. Express Healthcare was the media partner for the event.

EH News Bureau