Probably the writer works for one of the health insurance company or something like that. because even most forward countries like Australia they make noise about over stretched resources in all walks of life. these guys always run a scare campaign about resources crunch and speak as if sky is going to fall in the next decade.
RE:Health Tsunami
by Prakash Desai on Nov 23, 2007 04:25 AM Permalink
Dear Sir, If you do not have enough analytical capacity and enough knowledge to understand such important subject, please do not address the writer of such well analyzed article. Your comment (that writer works for health insurance company) itself shows your intellectual level Do not post bad remark against such writers Please note, the writer has presented before us the facts, figures and analysis. We, people of india, govt and everybody have to work together to find solution Insurance is not solution You are not able to understand the subject is a great pity itself
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by Prakash Desai on Nov 23, 2007 04:36 AM Permalink
Dear Sir, Do you live in india or outside? For your information, india already has two tire medical system One is govt aided service, which includes hospitals operated by central govt, state govts, municipal corporations and up to "gram panchayat" operated dispensaries where all the staff is employed and paid by govt or mun. corp. And patients are charged at heavily subsidized rates (please, do not talk about level of services and waste space and time, everybody knows about it) And parallel to it is private hospitals, private practising doctors who do not get any financial assistance from govt and they do not provide any subsidized service. That means, medical service from private doctors and hospitals are more expensive Any citizen of our country is free to go for treatment to any of the service provider (govt or private) The same is true for medical colleges and medical education For your information, i repeat, private participation in medical service in our country already exists
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by shiva on Nov 23, 2007 07:26 AM Permalink
Prakash Desai,
Appreciate your two postings. You have taken the trouble to be clear in your inputs, thereby enriching the info. I cannot say that for most of the others, who seem to shoot before they think.
We have many problems to take care of, top most being health & education. Basically, the efforts have to come from within the self, family etc, while the govt can be a facilitator with clear transparent functioning. They should provide the basic services so that nobody is denied them. Unfortunately for us, the individual and party come first and the common agenda is hanging on to power. We should get a certain inalienable agendas to be pursued whoever is in power, so that our lives are not threatened by diseases, terrorism etc.
I salute the private intiatives who even try to accomodate the poor who cannot afford, like the recent baby Lakshmi's case. Many of us want to help, but the system should enable us to channel our resources directly to benefit the poor.
RE:RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by AG on Nov 23, 2007 07:41 PM Permalink
Mr Shiva, Could not agree more, and the avenues exist. The NGO sector, The UN systems, The GOI initiatives. If one wants to help, then one may volunteer. We need clear thinking, honest people from all walks of life to help in the development of India. I am sure you can make a difference.
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by shiva on Nov 24, 2007 07:25 PM Permalink
AG,
I do write out cheques to few. I want to do physically, but like most find working life, an excuse. I bow my head to those who do real work and do not expect any publicity. The world is still worth living and the newborns are at least loved by their mothers. We are all capable of great noble deeds. The rich will help provided they are not taken advantage of.
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by Prakash Desai on Nov 27, 2007 04:28 AM Permalink
Dear Shiva, I also appreciate your views. I feel, in many subjects we share similar views and ideas. I liked your words ... the world is worth living ... and it is our responsibility to make worth liveable for next generations to come. One bitter reality of life is that everyboy needs money, without exception, to live a decent life. And all doctors are part of the same society. Still, I have seen many private practising doctors who simply forget unpaid money from poor patients. I whole heartedly salute those doctors, who provide subsidized treatment to poor,even today's time, without publicity. It just give them self satisfaction. If you see, many medical camps organized by many NGOs, most, rather all doctors give service there without any remuneration... and they all are private practising doctors. This is only one aspect of society life. If you walk around, you will find thousands or lakhs or crores of people who try to contribute to society. And as you said, the world is still liveable, because of such people. I may not be among them, but personally i always try my best to be among that class to make everybody's life worth liveable Regards Prakash Desai
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by sanjay agarwal on Nov 23, 2007 07:24 AM Permalink
mr. desai, it seems either you work for government or you are a leftist you neither let any one speak o any one side, nor you ahve any ideas and solutions of your own. Dont be just a refereee, we i this country dont require them, they are plenty...
RE:Allow Private hospitals and Medical colleges
by Prakash Desai on Nov 24, 2007 03:16 AM Permalink
Dear Sanjay Agarwal Please note, my whole life I have worked only with private sector and never with govt. Next, I am not a leftist or communist. In fact, I am totally against leftist philosophy, which is my personal matter and I do not want to discuss it here. Generally, whenever any subject comes up in rediff, what happens is that most people take only one sided view. In a way, they may be right as they might have come across only one aspect related to that subject. But remember one thing in life, something good for one person need not be good for everybody or bad for one is not always bad for everybody. Purpose of the discussion is to bring up both the sides so that we can have better understanding of the subjects affecting real life of our people. It is not that I want to always criticise somebody. I just try to bring up a related aspect of the subject which I might have come across in my life time. And also, I not only try to post my views only, at the same time, in addition to the main article, I always read all the readers' postings and in many cases I come across more information from others which adds to my knowledge also. Next is analysis of the subject, for which everybody have different perception. The idea is to explore the subject from more than one angle so that we obtain more knowledge out of healthy discussion Regards Prakash Desai
Agreed that there is a shortfall of trained personnel in Healthcare industry, but we do not have the resources... and maybe never will, it all depends on how we manage our meagre resources. I know for sure that funds are aplenty, thanks to funding agencies and our own govt. initiatives.
To improve the status of health, our culture needs to change, our mindset and our outlook towards health should change. As Indians we do not value life and do not value good health as an asset. No government or private sector players can change the health status, it HAS to be on an individual basis, from every citizen. FOr starters not to urinate and defecate anywhere we please, not to spit, use dustbins, etc. The infectious diseases are a real threat. The rural population needs attention, maybe they do not have access to healthcare. What we can do for our health is more useful than what the govt. and doctors can do.
Diabetes and Cardiac problems are lifestyle disease, PREVENTABLE! by adopting proper lifestyle at a young age. The economics of healthcare also suggests that prevention is cheaper than cure. The Choice is yours. Any comments/suggestions are welcome. ....A doctor and a Health management student.
RE:Indian Healthcare
by srikanth tummala on Nov 23, 2007 04:10 AM Permalink
I agree with u..."prevention is better than cure"; so medical schools and govt give more importance to community medicine..........the best way to do is involving corporates in community based preventive progrmes
RE:Indian Healthcare
by AG on Nov 23, 2007 07:15 PM Permalink
Absolutely Sir, and you will be pleased to know that many big corporates are indulging in CSR, and TATA comes to our mind as the pioneers in this. The corporate sector has realised the potential and good jobs are being done. A counter arguement is that they are doing it for publicity.. so what, if 100 people get cataract operations due to XYZ Industries Ltd., so be it. If the 1000 big companies sponsor 10 surgeries each for the people, it is a win win situation for all. And I also know that a lot of developmental work goes on without the hype and hoopla also. We need to look into this aspect to help the govt. initiatives and it is definitely on the right path.
RE:Indian Healthcare
by ! on Nov 23, 2007 06:37 AM Permalink
I am happy to hear such a refreshing thought from a Doctor. He/She could have such a thought on becoming a "Management Student". Kudos. Yes, the solution is in the prevention. After all the heading of the article is "Health" and not "Sickness". We need to create a separate cadre of "Health specialists" whose role would be very different from the present day "Doctors". Doctors from the Day 1 of leaving their citadels of learning (spending more than 30 - 50 lakhs) are more interested in people falling sick and then treating them . . . . and of course, charging what the market can bear! The "medical tourism" that is being touted is just the tip of the ice berg.
I do hope that the present "Doctor" Health Minister finds some time to debate and finalise something on the "Health specialists" amidst his tight schedule of running the AIIMS and tinkering with the medical curriculum
RE:RE:Indian Healthcare
by AG on Nov 23, 2007 07:26 PM Permalink
Sir/Madam, Thank you. The commercial aspect of this is also very interesting and there definitely exists a good potential for growth and profits. The larger hospitals and setups are not successful, largely because they do not adhere to principles of public service. I cannot run a hospital like a hotel! 'Health specialists' exist, as mentioned and are arriving on the scene and I hope we are able to do precisely what you are suggesting. We need specialist managers who understand doctors and patients both and the 'market'. Gujarat Govt. and other states have benefited from such Health/Hospital managers in the Healthcare delivery mechanism. Yes I forgot to mention the political will can make or break the entire health status. The policies exist, and the new Health policies are certainly a right step. We need IMPLEMENTORS. We need your good wishes!
Don%u2019t get focused on sickness industry! Get focused on Wellness. I suggest people to read "The wellness revolution" by Paul Zane Pilzer. That could be a turning point in your life! People like it or not, that%u2019s going to be the future, and don%u2019t you think it makes sense, to spend the same money to prevent diseases and keep you fit? There is going to be a huge wave coming up, and plenty of opportunities available, if some one interested to become entrepreneur in wellness field and tap your share of money too and helping the society. May be a noble way of making money! If you are interested to know more on this you can always reach me @ jayan_a@rediffmail.com
Dr/ Mr Arvind Singhal is absolutely right. Our country has got its priorities badly mixed up. "HEALTH IS WEALTH" might be an often used cliche, but can anyone dispute it? We rant and rave about our prospective 2-digit growth % of GDP and our "IT SUPERPOWER" status. But what is all this worth if we don't have something as basic as good, affordable and equitable health care?
What is needed is a massive public health progamme to improve diet, fitness and lifestyle, so that diseases such as diabetes can be prevented, thus reducing the strain on health care services.
RE:health care
by BIJU KRISHNAN on Nov 22, 2007 11:57 PM Permalink
FIRST STOP QUOTAS IN MEDICINE..! AFTER ALL THAT FIGHT ONLY THE RICH BRATS AND THE SC/ST/NT GET SEATS. AFTER SPENDING LAKHS ON STUDY OF MED, WHO THINKS OF SOCIAL SERVICE, ONLY MONEY MINTING.
And have you noticed the hotel culture and lack of drinking water in cities like bangalore HYD, Chennai. Most people are buying Mineral water.
New diseases have taken us by storm Chicken gunya dengue Elephants foot widespread TB
