Tamilnadu - Healthcare, Public Health and Medical Tourism

[murlee]

Thanks for the details CY!!

[murlee]

Salem, Madurai to get exclusive 500-bed hospitals

For the first time in the State, exclusive 500-bed hospitals for rural children and women will come up at Salem and Madurai at a cost of Rs. 80 crore each.

Under the National Rural Health Mission, the State Health Society has been sanctioned Rs. 160 crore for establishing the state-of-art hospitals at Salem and Madurai. Children below the age of 12 and women from rural areas will be provided treatment in the hospital that has both outpatient and inpatient wards.

The new hospital at Salem is to come up on the campus of the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital. The construction area has been identified and work is expected to be taken up in three months and completed by 2013-end.

As many as 200 doctors, 100 staff nurses, 50 technicians, 100 workers and 50 maintenance staff will be recruited.

R. Vallinayagam, Dean of the hospital told The Hindu, that a team from the State Health Society visited Rajiv Gandhi Government Women and Children Hospital in Puducherry, where a similar project was under way. It decided to replicate it.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/...cle3666876.ece

[madurakarenda]

Nice Fingers crossed

[chennaiyorker]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/0...lobalCoverage2

(Reuters) - For Ramaiyah Venkat, a retired Indian schoolteacher, the two-hour bus journey every three months to get free insulin is worth it even if he has to queue for hours at the dispensary and sometimes gets less than he needs.

Thousands of people like Venkat flock to the huge Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital in Chennai every day. Tamil Nadu is one of two Indian states offering free medicine for all. The state provides a glimpse of the hurdles India faces as it embarks on a programme to extend free drug coverage nationwide.

.......

The Tamil Nadu government says 50 or 60 percent of people in the state use the programme, which cost just over 2 billion rupees last year.

By comparison, retail drug sales in the state, home to 62 million people, were 54 billion rupees, according to the Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association. Arul Kumar, general secretary of the industry body, figures only up to 30 percent of the population takes advantage of the free programme.

contd...

[krishnaswamy]

தமிழகத்தில் 400 புதிய 108 ஆம்புலன்ஸ் சேவை
400 "108" Ambulances soon(by september) with more medicaladditional equipments, medical facilities.
தமிழகத்தில் அதிநவீன வசதிகளுடன், 400 புதிய 108 ஆம்புலன்ஸ் சேவைகள், விரைவில் மக்கள் பயன்பாட்டிற்கு வர உள்ளன. 108 ஆம்புலன்ஸ் வசதி, 2008 ல் துவக்கப்பட்டது. தமிழகம் முழுவதும் ஒவ்வொரு ஒன்றியத்திற்கு ஒரு வண்டி என்ற வீதத்தில், 436 ஆம்புலன்ஸ்கள் பயன்பாட்டில் உள்ளன. மாநிலம் முழுவதும் இந்த வசதியை விரிவுபடுத்த அரசு திட்டமிட்டுள்ளது. இதற்காக 400 புதிய ஆம்புலன்ஸ்களை அறிமுகப்படுத்த உள்ளது. இந்த ஆம்புலன்ஸ்களை அனைத்து வசதிகளுடன், நவீன முறையில் மக்கள் நல்வாழ்வுத் துறை தயார் செய்து வருகிறது. இந்த புதிய வண்டிகளை இயக்கவும், பராமரிக்கவும் அவசரகால மருத்துவ உதவியாளர்கள், டிரைவர்கள் புதிதாக தேர்வு செய்யப்பட்டு வருகின்றனர். செப்டம்பர் மாதம் புதிய ஆம்புலன்ஸ்கள் பயன்பாட்டிற்கு வர உள்ளன. ஏற்கனவே உள்ள 108 ஆம்புலன்ஸ்களை விட, 6 புதிய மருத்துவ முதலுதவி கருவிகளையும், உயிர் காக்கும் சிகிச்சைக்கான 3 நவீன உபகரணங்களையும் இந்த ஆம்புலன்ஸ்கள் கொண்டிருக்கும்.

Okay..we will be getting ambulances. good.
but where is the "traffic" for ambulance to serve their purpose?

[TShyam]

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu, which even 10 years ago had an alarmingly high incidence of HIV infection, has dropped from third to fifth among states with the largest number of people infected with the deadly virus.

Tamil Nadu previously ranked in the top three with 1.54 lakh HIV-positive people, it has now been overtaken by Karnataka (2.45 lakh), and West Bengal (1.67 lakh). Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for 5 lakh of the 24 lakh HIV positive in the country, remains the state with the most number of HIV-infected people, official statistics show.

Government and private initiatives have helped reduce the number of people infected each year in the state, said officials of Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TNSACS). "Around 27,000 people tested positive for HIV in the state in 2009," said a TNSACS official. "In 2010, the number dropped to 23,000, and in 2011, it fell further to 20,000. That's a decrease of 7,000 new cases in two years."

Activists attribute the success of the state's AIDS programme to the commitment of the health sector and the government. "Tamil Nadu was the first state to start an autonomous AIDS control society and the model, backed by political will, has been very successful," said Dr R Lakshmibai of Tamil Nadu Aids Initiative. "National AIDS Control Organisation has recommended the model to other states."

The state has benefitted from specialized target intervention programmes that go beyond focusing on vulnerable groups such as sex workers, said M Ramar of Centre for Social Development and Social Work Research in Coimbatore who runs intervention programs for migrant workers.

"Once we started targeting their clients, which spans various groups like migrant workers, truckers and youngsters, things started looking better," Ramar said. "I see a sense of awareness among migrant workers here. Fewer migrant workers than before are testing positive each year. Red ribbon clubs are also doing good work at college level."

According to Dr Lakshmibai, intervention programmes prevented the disease from reaching generalised epidemic proportions. "There are three levels — nascent epidemic, concentrated epidemic and generalised epidemic," she said. "The state never let it reach the generalised stage. When it looked like our intervention programs were only creating awareness and not changing behaviour, the state brought in specialised programmes."

Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, shut down 266 of its first-level detection and counselling centres due to a cash crunch. However, Dr Lakshmibai added that although Tamil Nadu is doing well, sustaining the effort to reduce the incidence of new cases will be a challenge. "Trends and sexual behaviour keeps changing," she said. "Agencies have to keep track of all developments while designing preventive programmes."

The state also has its work cut out in its intervention programme for transgenders. "The first survey was done only recently and shows that 9% of transgenders in the state are HIV-positive, a higher ratio than the 6% of female sex workers," Dr Lakshmibai said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/15303505.cms

Not too long ago TN had the second highest number of cases (only behind Maharashtra) with the peak prevalence reaching 0.86% (1% is considered critical to an epidemic or in simple terms a "tipping point"). Now it has dropped below 0.2%.TN health dept and TNSACS have done a terrific job. It is very important in these days of MDR and XDR TB's to have a good control of HIV infections.

[kannan infratech]

TN has been very successful in identifying the HIV and so the numbers are more.

One can not conclude that HIV is very low in some states. They also do not have the infra to test HIV as TN has.

One Union Health Minister from TN suruttufied so much by showing bogus NGOs for HIV awareness and actually that issue dented the successful story of TN.

[murlee]

Between Mumbai and Chennai’s first lung transplant, a huge gap

MUMBAI:The recent lung transplant on 41-year-old Jayashree Mehta is the city’s first and comes over a decade after the first lung transplant in the country in Tamil Nadu capital Chennai in 1999. Tamil Nadu has gone far ahead after that as far as cadaveric organ donation is concerned. Maharashtra is far behind.

Since the first lung transplant, Tamil Nadu has seen around 1.3 million cadaveric donations which the rest of the country aspires to reach in the next two years. Doctors in Mumbai admit that many in queue for a transplant here eventually move south.

“On paper, there is nothing particularly different Tamil Nadu is doing. What makes the Tamil Nadu model successful is the impeccable co-ordination between ICUs, hospitals and public there. In Maharashtra, we have the infrastructure but need better implementation,” said Dr Gustad Davar, president of the Zonal Transplant Transplant Co-ordination Centre, Mumbai (ZTCC).

ZTCC, which co-ordinates organ transplant procedures in the city recorded 251 kidney and 36 liver donations in 13 years, from March 1997 to January 2012.

In contrast, Tamil Nadu recorded over 650 organ donations in just three years from 2008 to 2012. Active participation of the Tamil Nadu government in making organ transplantation smoother is another factor that contributed to its success.

“The TN government has greatly helped in pushing the cause of organ donation. There is a transplant co-ordinator in every hospital. Most importantly, it is public awareness that has helped the most. People are more willing to come forward for the cause,” said Dr T Sunder, senior consulting cardiothoracic surgeon at Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

Doctors in Mumbai said poor awareness levels, besides unwillingness of the family of the deceased are hurdles in cadaveric organ donation.

“There are many myths and superstitions that come into play at the time of organ donation. Patients’ kin also fear mutilation of the donor’s body. Awareness even among the educated is poor. This must change,” said Dr Sunil Keswani of the National Institute of Burns, Airoli.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/be...e-gap/982228/0

[TShyam]

Originally Posted by kannan infratech

TN has been very successful in identifying the HIV and so the numbers are more.

One can not conclude that HIV is very low in some states. They also do not have the infra to test HIV as TN has.

One Union Health Minister from TN suruttufied so much by showing bogus NGOs for HIV awareness and actually that issue dented the successful story of TN.

Ithukku antha aal peraye solli irukkalam. I dont know of any other union health minister from TN.

PS. For those of you who are still scratching their head, naatamai is talking about Anbumani Ramadoss.

[TShyam]

Among the people responsible for saving lives through organ transplant surgeries, the families of the donors have rarely been recognised for the difficult decision they have to make at a moment of grief. Marking the cause, the Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network Foundation honoured a total of 26 families who were presented with mementos by K. Rosaiah, the Governor of Tamil Nadu at Raj Bhawan on Thursday.

R. Velliammal, the mother of a 14 year-old son, Ramakumar, was sitting among 25 other similar families who had come together in their grief of having a lost a loved one and yet having given life to several others. Her son had died in a road accident when his scooty collided with a wall. Velliammal had agreed to donate her son’s liver, kidneys, heart, heart valves and cornea giving a new lease of life to seven other people. “When he was alive, my son was always interested in donating blood and had wanted to donate more. He always had a giving nature. So we decided to donate his organs so that people can live through his organs.”

Since October 2008 till June 2012, over 1500 organs, including heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, cornea and heart valves, have been transplanted in the State. “Though Andhra Pradesh started it, Tamil Nadu is the leading state in organ transplantation in the country,” said V. Kanagasabai, the Dean of Rajiv Gandhi General Government Hospital.

Referring to transplant as the greatest achievement of science, Sunil Shroff, the Managing Trustee of MOHAN foundation said, “Unlike live people, cadavers can donate multiple organs saving many live. Organ donation after brain death leaves a legacy behind. It shows how death can bring life and how a terrible loss can turn into the greatest gift of all.” He added that the transplant coordinators and trained councillors were also equally worthy of credit since their role does not end with the surgery. With the help of effective networking, they continue to help rehabilitate the families of the donors.

Commending the giving nature of the people of Tamil Nadu, George Kurien, a trustee of MOHAN foundation said, “Tamil Nadu has a conversion rate of 80% as compared to a maximum of 40-45% for other states. The fact that people of Tamil Nadu give so much is remarkable.”Along with the family members, several neurosurgeons, anaesthesiologists among other medical specialists from Apollo Hospital, Global Hospital and GH were also presented with mementoes for their contribution in declaring the donors as brain dead, a crucial step in the process of transplantation.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle3747263.ece

[krishnaswamy]

TN SG decided to conduct surprise audits and inspection on Govt hospitals, PHC.
already.
As part of this inspection, they are going to audit the facilities in the hospitals, PHCs and defective instruments will be replaced.
மருத்துவமனைகளில் சோதனை: ஓ.பி., அடிக்கும் டாக்டர்கள் மீது நடவடிக்கை

அரசு மருத்துவமனைகள், ஆரம்ப சுகாதார நிலையங்களில் பணிக்கு வராமலும், உரிய சிகிச்சை அளிக்காமலும், ஓ.பி., அடிக்கும் டாக்டர்களை கண்டறிய, ஒரே நேரத்தில், அதிரடி சோதனை நடத்த அரசு முடிவு செய்துள்ளது. மாவட்ட வாரியாக, இந்த திட்டம் அமலாகவுள்ளது.

அரசு மருத்துவமனை டாக்டர்களின் சேவை குறைபாடு குறித்து, சுகாதாரத் துறைக்கு புகார்கள் குவிந்து வருகின்றன. இதன் அடிப்படையில், மாநிலம் முழுவதும் உள்ள மருத்துவமனைகளை ஆய்வு செய்து, பணிக்கு வராமல், ஓ.பி., அடிக்கும் டாக்டர்கள் மீது நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க, சுகாதாரத் துறைக்கு அரசு உத்தரவிட்டுள்ளது. ஒவ்வொரு மாவட்டத்திலும், சுகாதாரத் துறை அதிகாரிகளை, முழுவீச்சில் களமிறக்கி, இந்த சோதனையை நடத்த திட்டமிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. இதன் ஒரு பகுதியாக, திண்டுக்கல் மாவட்டத்தில், ஆக., 17ல், ஒரே நேரத்தில், 20 சுகாதாரத் துறை துணை இயக்குனர்கள் தலைமையிலான குழு, அரசு மருத்துவமனைகள், ஆரம்ப சுகாதார நிலையங்களில் சோதனை நடத்தியது.

இதன்படி, சாணார்பட்டி ஆரம்ப சுகாதார நிலைய, உதவி மருத்துவ அலுவலர் செந்தில்குமார் இடைநீக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டார். சக டாக்டர்கள் மீது, தொடர்ந்து பெட்டிஷன் போட்டு வந்த, டாக்டர் சசிக்குமார் வேறு மாவட்டத்திற்கு மாற்றப்பட்டார். அரசின் இந்த நடவடிக்கையால், ஒழுங்காக பணியாற்றும் டாக்டர்கள் மகிழ்ச்சியடைந்துள்ளனர். மேலும், இந்த ஆய்வு மூலம், அரசு மருத்துவமனைகளில் செயல்படும் கருவிகள், செயல்படாமல் உள்ள கருவிகள், தேவைப்படும் கருவிகள் குறித்தும் விவரம் சேகரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. மாவட்ட வாரியாக சேகரிக்கப்படும் விவரங்கள் அடிப்படையில், தேவைப்படும் கருவிகள் பட்டியல் தயாரிக்கப்பட்டு, அவற்றை வழங்கி, மருத்துவமனைகளின் தரத்தை மேம்படுத்தவும், அரசு முடிவு செய்துள்ளதாக, சுகாதாரத் துறை அதிகாரி ஒருவர் தெரிவித்தார்.

[murlee]

Getting India’s health care system out of the ICU

Most people would agree that one’s income or caste or gender should not bar one’s ability to get decent quality health care when one falls ill. A poor person should not have to borrow heavily, sell off her meagre assets, or decide not to get treated at all because she can’t afford the cost of care. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens to many people today. Far too many households fall below the poverty line trying to cope with the high cost of health care. Even for middle class families, the rising cost of staying healthy can put a serious strain on the budget. The health care system is seriously broken despite the existence over many decades of primary, secondary and tertiary health centres and public hospitals open to all. And despite the rapid growth of high end corporate hospitals that get free public land and other subsidies in return for the (often broken) promise of reserving a share of beds for poor people.

Click here for The ABC of UHC (pdf)

Ensuring universal health care is a major concern of governments the world over. The rapid growth of high end technologies for diagnosis and treatment, and the fact that people are living longer and are more likely to need health support when they age, has become a challenge even in countries like the U.K., long known for its ability to guarantee decent and affordable care through a National Health Service. Here in India, however, technology and aging are not yet the main problems. Consistent public underinvestment in health — barely above 1% of GDP — is a major reason why health care is so unaffordable for so many people. This puts us near the bottom of all countries for this measure. Around 70% of total health spending is out of pocket, and around 70% of that is on drugs. Poor people go less and less to public facilities to which they would go earlier because they almost never have the free drugs they are supposed to provide. This is a great irony for a country that has gained respect in Africa for making drugs affordable through our export of generics to them.

Generic drugs

An important low hanging fruit identified by the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) set up by the Planning Commission is to provide generic drugs through the public system. The HLEG also recommended in its report submitted in October 2011 that health care should be available to all citizens with a smart card and should be cashless at the point of service. An UHC system should provide a combination of preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative care through a package of primary, secondary and tertiary services. An emphasis on prevention and promotion at the primary level would be both cost effective and best in terms of health outcomes.

Higher public spending

The HLEG called for stepping up public investment in health to reach 2.5% of GDP by the end of the 12 Five Year Plan, and argued that a strengthened public sector must be the bedrock of reforms. But how to deal with the fact that public facilities themselves ignore public health, often lack adequate staff and equipment, and treat patients with scant respect? More investment must be backed up by the creation of a public health cadre, the recognition of a three year medical qualification in order to increase the availability of qualified professionals, and more staff at the lowest level. And a strong set of management reforms to improve quality and performance of public facilities must be urgently implemented.

The HLEG’s support for public investment in health is backed by the experience of many countries — Europe, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico, to name a few. But one cannot ignore the reality of the private health sector or the fact that it can and ought to be made to play its part in the move towards universal health coverage. At present, private facilities, under a veneer of respectful treatment, can be hugely expensive, and often do not provide appropriate or high quality clinical services. Ensuring that private health providers play a responsible role requires that we move away from ad hoc and unregulated public-private partnerships (PPPs) and also away from the practice of giving subsidies and freebies like land and tax-breaks to the private sector without any effective mechanisms to ensure accountability. An important recommendation of the HLEG is to set up independent and effective Health Regulatory and Development Authorities at both national and state levels that would supervise the quality of services delivered by both public and private sector providers. These bodies would ensure among other things that standard treatment guidelines form the basis of clinical care across both sectors, with adequate monitoring to improve the quality of care and control costs. They would also ensure grievance redress mechanisms by linking up with measures to ensure citizen participation and accountability. This has been done very effectively in countries that are at the forefront of the move towards universal health care such as Thailand and Brazil, and must be implemented in India.

http://www.thehindu.com/health/article3850103.ece

[murlee]

Patients lose out to patents & profits

A 2012 WHO study ranks India third — behind Myanmar and Bangladesh — among countries that fail to provide health cover to people. A 2011 study reported in The Lancet on ‘Healthcare and equity’ confirms this: every year, at least 39 million people here fall into poverty due to private out-of-pocket health expenditure. A vast majority of Indians do not have access to healthcare or essential drugs. By the government’s own admission, medicines constitute 74 per cent of out of pocket expenditure on health.

Waking up to the crisis, the Centre recently announced measures to bring about alterations to the system — free drugs starting October at state hospitals and price control for patented drugs. Both long-pending proposals require a four-fold increase in public spending on medicines, from 0.1 to 0.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, as recommended by the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage.

Today, when patients across the country purchase medicines, a substantial portion of the cost includes price margins for drug manufacturers, and numerous middlemen , including wholesalers, retailers, stockists and pharmacists. K.V. Babu, ophthalmologist and Indian Medical Association member, points out that even when doctors prescribe generics, as mandated by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the ‘deal’ is fixed at pharmacies that up their margins by selling expensive branded versions. For instance, the generic version of the popular diabetic medication Glimepride costs less than Rs. 2, while branded version Amaryl costs Rs. 7.

Price control

Doctors believe that price control, especially for expensive patented ones, could be a real gamechanger for healthcare.

According to estimates, the proportion of price-controlled drugs has fallen from around 90 per cent in the 1970s to about 10 per cent (now covering 348 essential drugs). This when, as The Lancet study reports, the cost of ‘essential drugs’ rose by 15 per cent, and those not under price control rose by 137 per cent.

Now, the government is considering a formula that uses ‘relative reference pricing’ or prices tagged to per-capita income. This is significant, given that even the generic versions of life-saving drugs are by no means affordable. For instance, Indian generic drug maker Natco’s version of Bayer’s cancer pill Nexavar costing Rs. 2.8 lakh (monthly dose), produced through a compulsory licence, costs Rs. 8,800.

While these reforms are still on the drawing board, Tamil Nadu has over the past 17 years led the way in providing better and equitable access to medicines with its drug procurement and distribution channel. Kerala and Rajasthan are emulating this model.

The basic idea is simple and universal: the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation procures generics and branded drugs in bulk, driving down prices. By the HLEG’s estimates, this variation could be between 100 and 5,000 per cent. The price advantage is at least 30 per cent, explains K. Senthil, president of the Tamil Nadu State Government Doctors’ Association. “Stock issues don’t exist. And as a result, outpatient numbers have almost doubled over the decade.”

Big pharma, which is betting high on the booming private sector, is irked by the proposed price control and developments in the patents space. Two government decisions have been challenged in closely watched court battles: allowing compulsory licensing for Bayer’s cancer pill, and rejecting Novartis’ patent claim for its cancer drug Glivec to block ‘ever greening’ (legal parlance for drug composition tweaked minimally to extend patent periods). With these bold moves, India follows Brazil and Thailand in countering oppressive IP regimes using TRIPS safeguards.

Another worrying trend is generics majors entering into ‘agreements’ or making licensing pacts with multinationals, points out Shamnad Basheer, IP expert and professor at the National University of Juridical Sciences. So, Indian companies, which once fought tooth-and-nail against MNC patents, are now gradually changing tack.

REVIVE STATE UNITS

While it may be difficult to counter these trends under existing laws, Prof. Basheer emphasises the need to revive public sector pharmaceutical units. “This is imperative not only to make drugs affordable but also to revive government-sponsored research on diseases that affect the poor. Private drug companies have no incentive to do so,” he says.

A good model to follow is Brazil’s FioCruz, the state-affiliated pharma agency, which not only manufactures drugs of public importance but also does cutting-edge R&D on diseases that affect poor patients.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...cle3849518.ece

[murlee]

Private health care no panacea

India ranks among the lowest in the world in public spending on health, but the private spending is one of the highest. The National Sample Survey Organisation’s report (2006) shows over 35 per cent of people who are hospitalised fall below the poverty line because of the expenses that follow, and over 40 per cent have to borrow or sell assets to pay for their care. Private sector provision rose from 8 per cent in 1947, and may be as high as 93 per cent of all hospitals, 64 per cent of all beds, 80 to 85 per cent doctors, 80 per cent of all outpatients and up to 57 per cent inpatients.

The Indian health story is one of inadequate resource allocation and poor governance. The substantial development of the private sector has been compensating the shortcomings of the progressively weakening public systems.

Private entrepreneurship has covered all aspects of health care markets, including financing, health worker education and equipment manufacturing and service.

The absence of uniform licensing and accreditation lowers the quality of services, and leads to a skew towards urban-centric provisioning and corruption.

A large number of providers and facilities from the private and unorganised sectors are exploiting the lack of regulatory mechanisms. It is difficult to pinpoint the number of the private sector providers owing to the lack of reliable data, but rough estimates indicate that there may be as many as a million unregistered, untrained providers. Despite these deficiencies, the private sector is often the first choice for health care for much of rural and urban India.

One major recommendation of the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage on institutional reforms is the establishment of a national health regulatory and development authority (NHRDA) that will regulate and monitor public and private health care providers, with powers of enforcement and redress. This regulator will oversee contracts, accredit health care providers, develop ethical standards for delivery, enforce patient’s charter of rights and take steps to provide universal health care system support through legal and regulatory norms, standard treatment guidelines and management protocols for a national health package. This can control entry, quality, quantity, and price.

The authority will be linked to similar State-level institutions and to an ombudsperson at the district-level institutions, especially to redress grievances.

High inpatient treatment cost, low insurance penetration and the high out-of-pocket expenditure place an undue burden on individuals, especially those below the poverty line and the aged, says a FICCI report on Health Insurance.

The Indian health insurance scenario today is a mix of mandatory Social Health Insurance (SHI), voluntary private health insurance and Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI). To make quality health care affordable, insurance penetration should increase to at least 50 per cent of the population by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2030 from the current 15 per cent, the report suggests.

The HLEG proposes that every citizen be entitled to essential primary, secondary and tertiary health care. The range of services, offered as a national health package, will cover all common conditions and high-impact, cost-effective interventions for reducing health-related mortality and disability. Public sector and contracted-in private facilities (including NGOs and non-profit organisations) will participate.

The HLEG has recommended general taxation as the most viable option for mobilising resources — complemented by additional mandatory deductions for health care from salaried individuals and taxpayers either as a proportion of taxable income or a proportion of salary. It has rejected levy of sector-specific taxes for financing health care and collection of any kind of user fee.

Importantly, it has suggested that no insurance company or any other independent agents be allowed to purchase health care services on behalf of the government; instead, all purchasing should be undertaken either directly by the Central and State governments through their Departments or by quasi-gover nment autonomous agencies.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...cle3849441.ece

[தமிழன்]

Multi-drug resistant TB stalking Chennai


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/16330104.cms

[murlee]

India's health-care system
Cashless, portable and paperless


http://www.economist.com/blogs/banya...0d4c3b12a5e227

[murlee]

Isn't TN's health insurance scheme much more wider in scope and money than the above central govt scheme? Wonder how the TN one is working out..

Any reports or articles have been published on that?

[TShyam]

Approximately 300 students of a medical institute in Russia received a live telecast of two cataract surgeries performed in Chennai on Thursday.

The students of the Helmholtz Moscow Research Institute of Eye Diseases saw the surgeries performed by K. Vasantha, director of the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology & Government Ophthalmic Hospital (RIOGOH), on a 57-year-old and a 63-year-old female, making an incision of 1.8 mm to remove the cataract with minimal scars.

The special feature of this surgery is that there were no sutures involved and the procedure was treated as an out patient one. “The patient can be discharged soon after the procedure. The vision will be restored to near normalcy the next day,” said Dr. Vasantha.

Earlier, cataract surgeries were performed with a 7-mm incision which led to a recovery of six weeks before eyesight was completely restored. However, now with the foldable lenses, which will cost Rs. 8000, the patient can be discharged the next day.

On the same day, a wet lab was inaugurated at the RIOGOH for the use of the surgical students at the college.

Appasamy association donated a piece of equipment worth Rs. 7.5 lakh, named Phacoemulsifier, which will give practical experience to students in removing cataracts from goats’ eyes. “The surgical students practice sutures and other procedures on a goat’s eye until they gain the confidence to practice on the human eye,” said Dr. Vasantha.

“Cataract surgeries are done daily at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital. Now, with the help of the Chief Minister Health Insurance Scheme, we are trying to purchase the lenses in bulk and negotiate the prices to make the surgeries free for all patients,” said V. Kanagasabai, dean of the Rajiv Gandhi General Government Hospital.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle3965760.ece

[jayak914]

Honble Chief Minister inaugurated the new buildings of Health Department through Video Conferencing

[tn2usa]

This is my first quote from a newspaper , please correct me if i am wrong !!

" Are you an overworked techie struggling to fix an appointment with a medic or does your aged parent need late night medical attention?

Don’t strain much. Now you can fix an appointment with a specialist of your choice near your locality by just a click of the mouse.

A group of former Infosysians along with a city doc has launched a website called www.mocdoc.in (moc meaning mode of contacting), wherein you can identify the specialist near your locality and also fix an appointment free of cost.

Over 1,000 doctors in the city have registered with mocdoc, which was unofficially launched in June last and extended to Coimbatore in a modest way."

More information at =>http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chann...docs-jiffy-088
Courtesy Deccan Chronicle