Evidence, Excellence and Equity emerge as key aspects to nullify the drawbacks in the current system
Policymakers and key opinion leaders in India’s public healthcare sector reconvened on the second day of Healthcare Sabha 2017, held at Novotel in Visakhapatnam, to continue the knowledge exchange with an aim to address the dominant challenges in the country’s public health system.
Sunil Sharma, Joint Secretary, Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India gave a great start to the second day of Healthcare Sabha 2017 with an insightful keynote address wherein he reiterated that availability, affordability and reliability are the cornerstones of any successful public health system. He also gave an overview on various government measures to facilitate a robust healthcare system which would effectively serve all the citizens of the country. He went on to highlight how funds allotted to NHM have grown up in recent years and elaborated on various schemes introduced to curb out-of-pocket expenditure. At the same time, he also admitted that there are several chinks in our system that need to be ironed out to fortify it and make it more foolproof. He also addressed queries from the audience to give them more clarity on the government’s stance and commitment to improve the healthcare scenario in the country.
In the next session, Angshuman Sarkar, Principal Consultant, ThoughtWorks Technologies, spoke on creating an integrated health ecosystem, empowered by technology. He put forth several ideas to demonstrate how technological advances can generate significant positive outcomes in health. Sarkar also drew attention towards the myriad solutions provided by his organisation to strengthen the public health system.
The same theme was carried forward by subsequent speakers, Dilip Bhosale, Head Marketing, India and Pranav Shah, Head Business Development, IT India, Agfa Healthcare who urged the public healthcare fraternity to join the digital revolution to attain the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). They also gave an overview of their solutions for public health facilities.
Thereafter, in a very interesting session by A Velumani, Founder, CEO and MD, Thyrocare, he shared the story of his rise from a PSU scientist to a corporate leader without losing the values of social good. Many of his success mantras like profit from volumes, making affordable care possible without compromising on quality, using technology to reach out to a large number of people etc carried valuable insights for public health professionals as well.
The next session was on bridging delivery gaps in Indian healthcare through affordable medtech development and deployment. Dr. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Director, Healthcare Technologies Incubation Centre, IIT Madras, spoke on various innovations being incubated at his organisation and emphasised that affordable innovations are the key to create a good public health system.
Prof MV Padma Srivastava, Department of Neurology, Neurosciences Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, addressed another significant issue – Rising incidence of strokes and the need to scale up stroke care in India’s public healthcare facilities. She also cited the example of Delhi’s ‘Code Red’ programme as a measure to tackle the growing menace.
The succeeding speaker, Sabu Jose, GM – Government, OEM & Corporate Accounts – India Cluster, Carestream Health, spoke on the future of imaging and his company’s offerings in this sphere.
Sumit Marwah, CEO and Director, Dispoline India spoke on their solutions for infection control and their advantages in public health in his session titled ‘Single use dilemma’.
The skill gap in healthcare was once again highlighted by Ashish Jain, CEO, Healthcare Skill Sector Council (HSSC). He also spoke on his organisation’s role in mitigating the deficit and elaborated on various programmes undertaken by HSSC to handle talent crunch among healthcare professionals, both in terms of capacity and competence. Training the trainers and collaborating with NABH to assure that there are a certain number of HSSC-certified staff in accredited hospitals are some of the steps he mentioned in his session.
Prof Mukul Asher, Professorial Fellow, Lee Kuan School of Public Policy, took the stage next to share his insights on health sector governance and resource generation. He highlighted the need for good governance and a framework for efficient management of resources to evolve a robust public healthcare model. He emphasised that there is no society which can provide best health services all the time, hence management of existing resources is key.
Dr Damodar Bachani, Deputy Commissioner (NCD), MoH&FW, Government of India, another distinguished speaker at Healthcare Sabha 2017, called attention to the growing threat of NCDs, India’s preparedness to deal with it and the immediate measures to tackle this challenge effectively which otherwise would have overreaching adverse effects. He also called for concerted efforts and strategic measures to win the war against this health menace.
The last session for the day was a workshop on NLEM-based hospital formulary in a public health facility, spearheaded by Dr Suresh Saravdekar, Director, The Rural Health & Education Centre. The workshop helped gain more understanding about the best practices in procurement that India can inculcate to improve its own drug quality standards. The delegates also got the opportunity to share their experiences in this sphere and exchange learnings.
Thus, it was a power packed day with several interesting takeaways for the delegates. It came to a close with a networking dinner.