Express Healthcare, launched a new initiative ‘Be The Change’ movement at the third edition of the Healthcare Sabha. The social movement, is an endeavour to encourage and motivate public health professionals to believe in themselves and do their bit towards driving public health reforms. The movement was launched by Bejon Misra, International Consumer Policy Expert and The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India. He was also the first to take the ‘#BeTheChange’ pledge. Mishra also urged other public health officials to take the pledge and accelerate progress in India’s public health system.
Explaining about the vision and endeavour, to initiate the movement, Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare said, “We at Express Healthcare believe that it is time to ignite a movement in Public Health, one that faces head-on the pressing problems in providing affordable, accessible and reliable healthcare delivery services. Instead of waiting for change, can we in fact Be The Change?”
Citing few example how to go about it, Roychowdhury said, “Can public health officials pledge to take up 1 project for this year, 2018-19, that they would like to achieve which can yield measurable outcomes in the area under their jurisdiction? For instance, can the available funds and resources be utilised more effectively by thinking out of the box? How can technology be leveraged to monitor the compliance levels in difficult to treat conditions like TB? How can a department try to be more transparent?”
Referring to one of the winners of the Express Public Health Awards 2017, Roychowdhury said, “ Government of Andhra Pradesh bagged a award for the project NTR Vaidya Pariksha, which resulted in the reduction of out of pocket spend from 45 per cent to 17 per cent in one year, while allowing 46 lakh patients to avail of free diagnostic services in one year. These stated goals as project statements, will be documented and presented to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) as part of the Outcomes Report post this year’s Healthcare Sabha.
The most promising and impactful of these pilot projects will be showcased at the fourth edition of Healthcare Sabha.
The Editor of Express Healthcare called upon each one of the public health experts to be the ambassadors of public health and initiate this social movement, by pledging their commitment towards driving this change.