FICCI HEAL 2008
Fostering Quality Healthcare for all
Thomex.com
NEW DELHI: A two-day conference titled 'Fostering Quality Healthcare for all' and an exhibition on the same was inaugurated here on Thursday by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Govt. of India. Organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the exhibition witnessed major healthcare companies participating in the show, including Philips, Fortis, Jupiter, Johnson & Johnson and others.
Delivering the keynote address, Naresh Dayal, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, called for a synergy among stakeholders to combat human resource crisis in the health. He said, "The availability of doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff has gone down vis-à-vis increase in India's population. Likewise, there was a misbalance in private participation in healthcare sector. The private participation is more in metros whereas the rural areas still remain neglected." He appealed to the private players to embrace the emerging opportunities in the hinterland.
Dayal felt that involving private players in healthcare sector could go a long way in solving India's healthcare problems. He said that communicable diseases and mother-child healthcare remains India's predominating priority.
Speaking on 'Building health value through quality and system', Jonathan B Perlin, chief Medical Officer and President - Clinical Services, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) said that quality, efficiency and managing healthcare system were crucial factors in improving the healthcare services.
Perlin stressed the need of maintaining electronic healthcare records of the patients which could be accessed by healthcare personnel anywhere in the world. It is to be noted that Perlin's HCA is one of the biggest healthcare system in the US which handles 6% of the country's healthcare with 183,000 employees under its wing.
Most of the speakers alluded to Emergency and Management Research Institute (EMRI), a not-for-profit organisation started by Satyam founder B Ramalingam Raju. They felt that the programme which is now operational in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat could play an important role in future healthcare strategy and should be extended to other parts of the country.
Speaking on 'Indian examples as models for the developing and developed world', Dr William A Haseltine, President of William Haseltine Foundation for Medical Science and the Arts, said that India offered a good example of an efficient healthcare system despite its numerous constraints. "Healthcare is not only about technology, vaccines or innovative products but about efficiency, quality and cost. In the US, it's 200 times more expensive than in India. The productivity of Indian doctors is 10 times more than that of the US doctors," Haseltine said.
Haseltine stated that healthcare was a global phenomenon and not confined to only India and the US. "There is a lot that India can teach to other countries in terms of efficiency. It's commendable that India manages such a vast population and an equally vast spectrum of diseases in such an effective cost," he said.
Giving a final shape to the conference, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said healthcare was among the top priority of the government. He said that although the public expenditure in healthcare was less, it was not out of Govt's sight. He said that India is facing the ‘double burden of diseases’ in the form of high mortality rate and the problem of sanitation and other related issues.
The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission said that private players have lessen this burden in the form of dispensaries, clinics and private hospitals coming up in various cities. He however felt that it remains expensive for the lower middle class. Referring to Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (National Health Insurance Programme), Ahluwalia said that a subsidised insurance could solve 300 million people’s healthcare problem, living below the poverty line.
Montek Singh held that private-public participation in healthcare should be explored and a service delivery mechanism be evolved to extend the service to much wider population.
The occasion also saw the release of a FICCI - Ernst & Young report on healthcare and ISQua approved NABH standard on Hospital Accreditation.
Some of the highlights of FICCI - Ernst & Young reports
- Despite steadily rising healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP, India has a lower per capita expenditure and poorer health outcomes compared to other developing economies.
- Share of private expenditure has grown from 60% to nearly 80% of the total healthcare expenditure over a decade.
- Around 90% of private expenditure on treatment is borne out-of-pocket.
- Insurance covers only 12% of the population, primarily those in the formal sector.
- Post liberalisation, while private health insurance has grown rapidly, premiums have remained out of reach for the majority of the population.
- Private insurance that primarily covers in-patient and allopathic care is highly priced and has a significant scope for product innovation.
- Cost of treatments, largely driven by private providers, has increased healthcare expenditure as a percentage of total household expenditure.
- The cost of drugs has risen at twice the wholesale price index despite price controls.
- The share of diagnostics has been increasing and the cost of diagnostic and consumables form a significant portion of the treatment cost.
- Although public providers are cheaper, people prefer private providers due to better perceived quality, thereby incurring higher costs.
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