From diagnostics to patient safety groups; representatives from Indian and global pharmaceutical companies to specialist doctors — a varied and distinguished panel represented all aspects of the broad healthcare spectrum at the recently concluded roundtable hosted by India Health Progress in Delhi. The roundtable titled, ‘Making Access to Healthcare a Reality: Role of Stakeholders in Ensuring Continuum of Healthcare’, was organised to discuss measures to overcome various bottlenecks in providing quality as well as cost-effective medical services to each person in India, even in the remotest corners of the country, and outlined the role each stakeholder can play in making this valuable objective a reality. Dr YK Gupta, Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi delivered the keynote address while highlighting the state of affairs and health issues in India.
“Healthcare accessibility has to be technologically driven so that good health reaches the remotest of areas in the huge landscape of the country. The preventive aspect of healthcare has to be emphasised with a grassroot change of mindset. An understanding about maintaining good health and lifestyle management needs to be developed. It requires an enormous effort in the right manner to provide accurate, fast and quality diagnosis; and also put an end to sub-standard spurious medicines. Health policies must be implemented besides fresh introductions. A ‘Shake Hand’ or cooperative approach and an end of the blame game are the needs of the hour to make each and every Indian get access to good health,” said Dr YK Gupta, Professor and Health, Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
IHP’s Principal Advisor, Aman Gupta said, “Inaccessible healthcare is a bitter reality in India and this is now increasingly being recognised as the underlying cause of all health concerns in the country. IHP has successfully acted as a catalyst in highlighting the essentiality of ‘healthcare access to all’ at all times. Such an expansive mission requires a collaborative effort involving all stakeholders in the healthcare industry as each has a distinct role to play in achieving this all-inclusive goal. Discussions like these are more about solutions rather than the problems and chalking out a roadmap of how to reach the desired objective of enhancing the accessibility of medical services.”
Besides accessibility, issues related to affordability and quality were emphasised by Brig Dr Arvind Lal, Chairman, Dr Lal Pathlabs; he stressed that the government must connect with the private sector and work with it in an effective manner to reach out to the masses. Dr Nimesh Desai, Director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) affirmed the openness for partnerships by various stakeholders involved as well as prioritising appropriate empowerment of healthcare personnel such as pharmacists, nurses and social workers.
Gupta added, “A collective effort will only help develop the deficient aspects of human resource, technology, economic viability, quality and sustainability in the healthcare sector. IHP believes that solving the access problem will need a combination of regulation and innovation in terms of service delivery, medical education and healthcare financing.”
The experts who participated in the contemplative discussion include:
- Brig Dr Arvind Lal, Padma Shri, Chairman & Managing Director, Dr Lal PathLabs
- Dr AK Jhingan, Delhi Diabetes Research Centre
- Ameesh Masurekar, Founding Director, AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS
- Dr Nimesh Desai, Director, IHBAS
- Dr Pervez Ahmed, Founder Chairman & Managing Director, Apka Urgicare Pvt. Ltd
- Ranga Iyer, Independent Expert
- Ratna Devi, Independent Expert on Public Health
- Dr Usha Shrivastava, Public Health Expert
- Vishal Gandhi, Managing Partner & CEO, BioRX Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd
- Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare
- Dr YK Gupta, Professor and Head-Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS
- Aman Gupta, Principal Advisor, India Health Progress
- Amiee Adasczik, Assistant Vice President, PhRMA
The event was supported by PhRMA as part of the ongoing commitment of global, innovative pharma companies to be a solution partner in advancing a safe and effective healthcare system in India.
EH News Bureau