Health Minister JP Nadda today announced forming of a 'Working Group' by the ministry with private sector players to develop alternate health care models under public-private partnership in a time bound manner.
Addressing 12th India Health Summit, Nadda said the Working Group is aimed at collaborating with the private sector to use their expertise for achieving country's health goals.
"We get wonderful ideas from the companies. We have been interacting with each other. But the problem is we discuss and disperse. There is no concrete approach on how we would go about it.
"Therefore, I declare to form a Working Group with the ministry and the private leaders to come up with alternate and rare PPP models in a time bound manner," he said.
He said the Working Group will break the barriers to help government collaborate with private sector.
"Many new ideas come but they need to be examined. And this is only possible if we hold intense discussions on issues, understanding about them and see how successful models can come up," the minister said.
Nadda said government needs special support from private health leaders in areas like infrastructure, alternative finance arrangements, skills and insurance issues.
"We really need to discuss these areas and decide how we will go forward. As you are the leaders in the health industry and catering to 70 per cent of the health care, you have a major role to play and your support will be useful. IT and accessibility are the areas where we can go forward among others," he said.
He said stakeholders are important for key interventions to improve the health care system as the government faces several challenges.
"We work under certain challenges. We can view, address and share the problems but stakeholders are the persons who know where and how the interventions are required to make the health care facilities better," he said.
Nadda said government has identified 184 high burden
districts which need special attention in term of health care services.
"Government has mapped out 184 districts which are high focus districts which need great attention. If we are able to address the issues of these regions, we will improve the health parameters of the country," the minister said.
Speaking about various challenges faced by the government in health care system, Nadda said variation between health facilities in rural and urban areas, inequity in public and private health facilities and financial problems are some of the major issues.
"There is a great variation of health services in rural and urban area. There has been more concentration on urban areas while the rural are unattended. So we are trying to focus on that. Then there is inequity between public and private health services. Though 70 per cent of the needs catered by private sector, we face difficulty in regulating them," he said.
Nadda also expressed concern about the lack of health infrastructure in eastern part of the country.
"North and Eastern parts of the country need special attention as they still lack important health facilities. Whereas southern and western parts are doing good as they have better infrastructure and educational institutes," he said.
Looking at the adolescent and adult female Thalassemia
patients, most of them have an issue with ovulation and their periods are irregular or they don't get their period because of the iron deposition in the endocrine organ, which is the most common problem. "It is important to highlight that if you take regular transfusion and good chelation, we should be able to maintain the endocrine function. This can also happen to the male patients, wherein due to endocrine dysfunction, the testosterone levels will be low and secondary sexual character development doesn't happen. Due to this lot of people don't get married. This is common among the adolescent and adult Thalassemia patients and many times adds to psychological stress," informed Dr. Sharat Damodar.
1 in 10,000 newborns are diagnosed with Thalassemia and a lot of them don't reach tertiary care centres such as NH, because some of them don't get adequate blood transfusion; these children reside in villages and rural areas, and many go to smaller places and get routine transfusion and lot of them don't get the iron overload monitored and chelation done.
Prevention and Cure:
Bone Marrow Transplant is the only curative option for Thalassemia. Looking at the Indian registry data, around 20 to 25% of all bone marrow transplants done in India are for Thalassemia patients. It makes more sense to make sure you identify people who are Thalassemia minor before getting married and then either prevent or go for genetic testing during pregnancy and avoid the child from having Thalassemia major. This drive is more important in preventing these numbers from increasing. Educating and sensitizing people is also very important to get a simple blood test done to prevent bearing a child with Thalassemia major. Adequate counseling and awareness can prevent Thalassemia
[http://www.Narayanahealth.Org/NHDialogues/webinar/thalassemia ].
About Narayana Health:
With all the super-specialty tertiary care facilities that the medical world offers, Narayana Health is a one-stop healthcare destination for all. Founded by Dr. Devi Shetty and headquartered in Bengaluru, Narayana Health group is the second largest health care provider in the country [http://www.Narayanahealth.Org ] in terms of operational bed count. The first facility was established with approximately 225 operational beds in year 2000 at NH Health City in Bengaluru. The Company today operates a chain of multispecialty tertiary and primary healthcare facilities across a network of 24 hospitals and 7 heart centres in India and single hospital overseas at Cayman Islands, with over 5,600 operational beds across all its centres and potential to reach a capacity of over 6,900 beds
(For details, visit http://www.Narayanahealth.Org)
Media Contact:
D K Venkatesh,
Narayana Health
Media@nhhospitals.Org
+91-80-71-222-222
Photo:
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http://photos.Prnewswire.Com/prnh/20150107/724023. Source: Narayana Health City.
