Celebrates commitment to safeguard India’s health with Express Public Health Awards, in collaboration with Glenmark, Public Health Foundation of India and KPMG
Express Public Health Awards, in its second edition, honoured state governments, public sector institutes, government hospitals and NGOs for their exemplary efforts to achieve UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to health.
Held concurrently with Healthcare Sabha 2017, at Novotel Visakhapatnam, it began with a welcome address by Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare. She explained that the awards were a tribute to public health champions for their commitment towards people’s welfare and good health in the face of diverse challenges like budgetary constraints, resource restraints and exacting timelines. She expressed her thanks to Glenmark, the Presenting Partner; Public Health Foundation of India, the Knowledge Partner and KPMG, the Process Partner.
She also introduced the eminent jury comprising Dr Srinath Reddy, Founder and President, PHFI and Chairperson of the Jury; Dr RK Srivastava, Sr Advisor, Public Health and Innovation, WISH Foundation, Delhi; and Bejon Misra, Founder, PSM India; Dr Sheetal Amte-Karajgi, CEO, Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Warora; Prof Yogesh Chawla, Immediate Past Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh; Prof Dr Bhabatosh Biswas, Vice Chancellor, Health University, West Bengal and Dr M Prakasamma, Executive Director, ANSWERS, Hyderabad. She also expressed her gratitude to all the jurists for their invaluable contribution in choosing the deserving winners.
In a Skype address, Dr Reddy stated that PHFI is very glad to partner with Express Healthcare in celebrating the game changers in the India’s public health sector.
Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Advisor, MoH&FW, Government of India, in a Special Address, gave a rundown on the existing public health system of India and spoke on various endeavours by the government to enhance health and well-being of its citizens. He also gave several recommendations to augment the current framework such as making pharmacists and nurses the cornerstones of the public health system and integrating AYUSH with mainstream medical practice by making it more evidence-based. He also lauded Express Healthcare for creating a platform like Healthcare Sabha to bring all policymakers under one roof.
Roychowdhury took the stage again to explain the methodology and the selection process of the winners, followed by the felicitation ceremony. The winners were as follows:
Express Public Health Award for Most Efficiently Run Health Programme by a State Government: Government of Madhya Pradesh won this award for their comprehensive TB programme run by the Directorate of Health Services. The programme’s objectives included improving notification and success rates for drug resistant TB, morbidity & mortality of HIV associated TB as well as outcomes of TB care in the private sector.
Express Public Health Award for Most Efficiently Run Health Programme by a Government Institution: It went to National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) for their hub-and-spoke model across the country comprising community health professionals, NGOs, GPs, non-specialists and lay counsellors to provide quality services.
Express Public Health Award for Innovation in Increasing Affordable Access by a State Government: The winner in this category was Government of Andhra Pradesh for their initiative to provide free drugs to all patients visiting government institutions in 13 districts and 17286 villages, in a transparent way, through online indenting, monitoring, consumption and auditing with E Aushadhi, a software developed by CDAC.
Express Public Health Award for Most Effective Health Technology System by a State Government: Government of Himachal Pradesh bagged this award for their Himachal Pradesh Tele Health Services (HP-THS), a project run by SPO (e-health), Directorate of Health Services. It was given to laud the efforts of the state government, given the difficulties in providing telehealth services at high altitude regions and making specialist healthcare services including 24×7 emergency services available even in remote locations covered by the project: Kaza and Keylong in the districts of Lahaul and Spiti.
Express Public Health Award for Most Effective Public Private Partnership: The Government of Andhra Pradesh received this award for their diagnostics project, NTR Vaidya Pariksha, which helped reduce out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) from 54 per cent to 17 per cent in one year, while allowing 46.5 lakh patients in one year to avail free diagnostic services.
Express Public Health Award for Most Effective Healthcare NGO: Rural Health Care Foundation, Kolkata was the winner in this category for innovation in service delivery. Their work in primary health centres of seven districts of West Bengal was found to be scalable, sustainable and replicable.
Express Public Health Award for Best Government Hospital with a Medical College: Indira Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh received the award in this category. The hospital provides treatment free of cost or at nominal subsidised rates and has been able to attract people from all over the state including distant tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh.
Four Special Mentions were also part of Express Public Health Awards. They comprised:
Regional Institute of Medical Sciences Rehabilitation Hospital, Imphal, Manipur received a Special Mention as the Best Government Hospital (Non Metro Region) for rendering services in remote areas.
Ziqitza Healthcare Limited (ZHL) received a Special Mention under the Most Effective PPP in Healthcare Infrastructure category for their ‘1298’ ambulance project and PPPs with various state governments to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Shree Krishna Hospital, HM Patel Centre for Medical Care & Education deserved a Special Mention as Best Hospital with a Medical College for their unique, physician-led governance structure standing on four pillars of quality; namely humane care, efficient care, rational care and affordable care.
Maharaja District Hospital, Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, received a Special Mention as the Best District Government Hospital for innovative initiatives like the 24×7 emergency management for all referred cases, minimising further referrals to tertiary care hospitals and having a separate place for biomedical wastage with segregation rooms.
Rajendra Pratap Gupta; Jury members, Dr Prakasamma, Dr Srivastava and Bejon Misra; AG Prasad, Divisional Head, Institutional Sales & Marketing at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Viveka Roychowdhury gave away the awards to the winners.
The event ended with a vote of thanks to all the jury members, dignitaries and delegates for being a part of Healthcare Sabha 2017 and the Express Public Health Awards.
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