Health

For the last three months, not a single patient from below poverty line (BPL) has been treated at the Rockland Hospital.

When the special committee appointed by the High Court visited the hospital last month, only one out of the 11 beds available for BPL patients was occupied in the Pushpawati Singhania Hospital.

Noting that there is a `calculated, systematic nexus among government and private hospitals to successfully frustrate the court and cheat poor patients', the committee has recommended penalising medical superintendents of government hospitals if they do not refer patients to private centres.

In Delhi, 40 private hospitals allotted cheap or free land by government agencies are required to set aside a tenth of their beds for the poor even if they had not given any such commitment at the time of allotment. The High Court committee has come to the conclusion that over 90 per cent of these free beds remain unoccupied.

"Close to 1,000 beds in private hospitals are supposed to be used to unburden government hospitals and provide quality care to underprivileged patients," said Ashok Agarwal, a lawyer associated with Social Jurist, an NGO. "It is bizarre that some hospitals have not treated a BPL patient for as long as three months. Part of the blame is with the government, which does not pressure the private hospitals.
We're going to ask for a highlevel inquiry in this matter."

Source: The Indian Express By Vidya Krishnan  Private hospitals dodge `poor' clause, doors still shut to underprivileged

We will make use of free-SMS websites and inform parents through it.A.K. DHAWAN, Ghaziabad CMO

The Ghaziabad health department has now contemplated the full use of free-SMS services available through various websites to educate and inform the masses about polio vaccination dates and schedules in the district.

Badly hit by the polio virus in 2009, the district health department has now come up with the idea of a call centre at the MMG district hospital to educate, inform and update parents about the due dates of polio-vaccination and various schedules.

"The easiest way to connect to people nowadays is through mobile phones. We will send the schedule of the polio campaign and due dates of the vaccination for children," said said A.K.
Dhawan, Ghaziabad Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

"This program has been initiated at our own level," he added.

"Due to lack of funds, we will make use of free SMS websites and inform parents through it," said Dhawan.

The officials also intend to expand the program to the entire district.

Source: Hindustan Times By Peeyush Khandelwal Unique Connect: Now, A Health Campaign Through SMS

To be available in a month's time, the online facility will enable the department to keep track of monetary transactions between insurance companies and enlisted hospitals.

In addition to allowing beneficiaries to check their insurance amount and per entry usage, the system will also keep an update of all the hospitals empanelled under the scheme.

The Centrally-supported scheme was launched in April 2008. It provides health insurance to around 1 crore Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the state.

As many as 8, 37,837 smart cards have been distributed in the state till now. The smart card cost beneficiaries Rs 30 annually and covers medical expenses up to Rs 30,000 for five members of the card holder's family. Having tied up with ICICI Lombard as the insurance agency, the Centre pays Rs 550 per month as premium for insurance in the scheme.

The scheme had all its monetary transactions and monitoring done online for the 15 districts which were covered under the scheme in the first phase till April 2009.

The records maintained by hospitals were, however, not available on the internet, making it difficult for departments to tally data provided by the insurance company.

Source: The Indian Express Health insurance plan for the poor set to go online

This is Delhi government's newest plan to make medical advice available to you at a minimum cost and maximum convenience.

"We are planning to have a call centre manned by about 5060 trained doctors and paramedics, who will be able to handle any basic health inquiry," said Kiran Walia, health minister of Delhi.

The Delhi government is planning to do it with the help of private players, who will be responsible for the infrastructure and maintenance, while the government will provide the manpower.

The government plans to have a common number for the call centre with a bank of lines. This will work like the ambulance and police helpline numbers, which work 24/7.

Delhi government is also hoping that this concept may help in building a community-wise database of patients, which may help health researchers.

Source: Hindustan Times Doctors on call, 24/7, and free

Invariably the doctors have been insisting that the patient have a complete blood profile, ultrasound and Xrays done and get urine tested, both routine and even culture sometimes.

No one has any objection in undergoing so many tests in cases of serious ailments but certainly the patients and their relatives do get upset when they are asked to go in for various tests in ordinary ailments such as common cold, viral fever or minor injuries or bruises. The question arises as to whether these tests, involving considerable expenditure, are at all necessary? The doctors' version in this regard is that they do not want to take risk of getting involved in any litigation, especially under the Consumer Protection Act, under which the consumers do not have to incur any expenditure by way of court fees. Another argument is that in order to prescribe scientific treatment, the requisite tests are essentially necessary.

Noticing the above unhealthy state of affairs, P. R. Subhash Chandran, a journalist of Andhra Pradesh, went to the extent of filing a writ petition pro bono publico before the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking issue of directions to the government to prevent the exploitation of the patients undergoing per force numerous tests required by the doctors. The high court appreciated the stand of the petitioner but expressed its inability to issue directions to the state government, as sought for. It, however, observed that there was a definite need to control and check the unethical practices being followed by the doctors in the judgement reported at AIR 2000 A. P. 272.

The author is an advocate and editor of Consumer Protection And Trade Practices Journal ( CTJ)

Source: Mail Today By Rosy Kumar Doctors Must Not Exploit Patients' Trust

Mandatory registration of contract research organisations or clinical research organisations (CRO) should start in three months, said Surinder Singh, drugs controller general of India (DCGI).

"This is a very good move by the government," said Muralidharan Nair, partner, health sciences practice, at audit and consulting firm Ernst and Young. "In today's world, it (the existing system) gives a poor impression of India that anyone can have a CRO. The registry will allow people to know the strength of a CRO, the services it offers, its credentials and therapeutic segments it covers."

Such a registry, he said, was a basic requirement for the industry.

India is one of the fastestgrowing clinical research destinations with a growth rate that is two-and-a-half times that of the overall market growth, but human drug trials have so far not been monitored closely.

Source: Live Mint By Radhieka Pandeya TIGHTER REGULATIONS - Firms Have To Register With Govt For Clinical Trials On Humans

Rising obesity resulting in lifestyle-related disorders like diabetes and cardio vascular disease (CAVD) among the Asian Indian population has led to the revision of dietary guidelines by the Government of India.

The guidelines were last revised by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, in 1998. The new ones were released in the Capital on Friday.

Diabetes Foundation of India, in collaboration with department of science and technology and National Foundation of Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Disorders, formulated the India-specific guidelines to be published in a medical journal to create the necessary awareness.

Broadly established for two Indian regions -- north and south, the guidelines will in time be modified to suit the necessities of regional Indian population as well.

Source: Hindustan Times Charting the perfect Indian meal

Bed networking knowing how many beds are available in each hospital and referring patients accordingly will soon be a click away.

In a recent meeting with medical superintendents of private hospitals which had acquired land at concessional rates promising free treatment to BPL patients the state health officials instructed them to update the "bed vacancy" at the end of each working day on the website of Directorate of Health Services (DHS).

"The idea is to keep government hospitals informed about the bed vacancy in private hospitals," said JP Singh, Principal Secretary. "Most state-run hospitals are over-burdened as private players were not keeping up their end of the deal. We want government hospitals to start referring BPL patients to private hospitals as a routine," he said. The procedure of bed networking has already been worked out. As of now, private hospitals send a fax every morning with information about bed vacancy. This will be done online.

"With a click of mouse we will know which hospital is best suited for the patient, keeping in mind the location and the speciality required," said Dr Amit Banerjee, Medical Superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital. The hospital is already referring seven to eight patients a day to private hospitals.

If this works as planned, it will mean that patients will no longer have to share beds, limiting cases of infections.

"This is a step towards a future where a poor patient will confidently walk in to a private clinic and be treated with dignity without paying a single paisa," Banerjee added.

The state government recently appointed a nodal officer exclusively for Indraprastha Apollo hospitals which had gone to court against paying for consumable to treat poor patients.

A doctor has been posted there for three months to ensure that 200 beds are kept aside for BPL patients.

Government officials here said the department has also directed all private hospitals and pathologies to conduct `elisa' test for dengue before confirming the disease.

Over two dozen dengue cases have been reported from different parts of the state so far.

Gone are the days when your Mediclaim policy covered only your hospitalisation expenses. You can now cover your visits to the doctor, medicine bills, diagnostic tests and maternity expenses as well.

This is due to increasing competition in the health insurance sector with the entry of five nonlife insurers and two stand-alone health insurance companies since 2007. All 21 life insurance players have also been allowed to offer health covers.

"We hope to see many more innovations in the health insurance sector, which is good for the insured," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority chairman J. Hari Narayan told HT.

"We recently launched Easy Health Individual Insurance Plan that covers maternity expenses after six claim-free years and free health check-ups after three claim-free years," said Antony Jacob, CEO, Apollo DKV Health Insurance.

Source: Hindustan Times Now, pay for your root canal with insurance

"The government will soon recruit 5,000 doctors through Public Service Commission," Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra said yesterday during a day-long training programme of newly appointed medical officer held here.

For the convenience of the newly appointed medical officers they are being appointed in their home district, the minister added.

"The main objective of training programme is to strengthen health services in the state and ensure that poor people who cannot afford treatment get benefitted,"he said.

"The government will extend all possible support but if any laxity is observed in providing health services to poor stern action will be taken against the guilty,"he warned.

The hospital authorities, however, denied the claims. "Not a single case on Friday warranted a test. We had stocked 30 kits for the sudden rush of people. We had been testing each visitor before the guidelines were formulated. As a result, we have temporarily run out of kits. We had written to the NICD, where we are sending the samples for testing, to send us some more kits. But, we have not yet received any response,'' said the CMO at the hospital.

A NICD official said instead of allotting kits to each hospital, it is being done centrally through the state government. "We have told Noida health officials to arrange the kits from Lucknow,'' said the official.

However, the district health officials assured that there was no reason to panic."We have taken all steps to tackle the problem. NICD officials have offered all help. In the interim we procured kits from medical vendors. By Thursday evening, we contacted Lucknow and the kits have now reached us,'' said the official.

Source: Times Of India Patients in Noida allege there are no kits at centre

With the medical history of a patient being a click of a mouse away for doctors in Delhi, cumbersome diagnosis will become a thing of past.
The state Health Ministry is in the process of finalising the issuing of health cards--smart cards with the entire medical data of a person --to all its citizens.
Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia said the government would be ready to introduce the cards in mother and child health programmes by the end of the year.

"We are not just thinking about the urban or semi-urban population, but also the rural population," said Walia.

"Delhi has many slums and unauthorized colonies and we plan to have a well-integrated scheme for all strata," she added.

At the launch of Health Positive-- a medical health journal-- recently, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi had said he was in favour of e-health card for all Indians.

"The card will be a convenient way of registering births.
Each child will get registered with the government at the time of birth and the medical history and other relevant information will be fed directly into the card," he said.

"As the child grows up, the information will get updated automatically."

"This is just an idea at the moment, and if it materialises, a doctor can access all the information about a patient on the Internet from anywhere in the world," said Trivedi.

The government has mandated all human clinical trials being done in the country to be registered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), thus bringing the $389-million industry under regulatory purview.

"We wanted to add legal teeth to the whole process, which was voluntary until now. This would make clinical trials more transparent and those conducting them more responsible and accountable," said a health ministry official who didn't want to be named.

According to existing norms, ICMR--India's apex body for biomedical research--had been overseeing clinical trials on humans in tandem with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on a voluntary basis.

With the new notification coming to effect on June 15, firms that have been okayed by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct human experiments for a particular medicine will have to provide a Clinical Trials Registry to ICMR. This will record important information related to the trial such as the nature of the experiment, the source of funding of the trials, details of patients enrolled for the trial and the ethics committee that is responsible to oversee the patients enrolled into it.

ET had reported earlier that the health ministry was planning to make ICMR registration mandatory for human clinical trials by mid 2009.

Source: Times Of India Curtains for off-the-record human clinical trials

"With health services getting virtually paralysed in many government hospitals, primary and community health centres owing to shortage of doctors, the move will enable the State to offer better health facilities," Director General (Medical and Health) I.S. Srivastava said.

As per the decision, private medicos can offer their services to government hospitals, primary and community health centres on a daily or monthly basis. The remuneration norms have been fixed.

"Private doctors opting to serve government hospitals would be given Rs.1,000 per day. This has been conveyed to the chief medical officers (CMOs) of all the 71 districts," said Mr. Srivastava.

The strength of the Uttar Pradesh provincial medical service is 12,000, of which 5,000 posts are lying vacant. The government is expected to start hiring private doctors from the first week of July, the official said.

The state government had last week decided to go for campus recruitment of doctors for filling the vacant posts, the official added.

सूत्रों का दावा है कि इसे अपोलो और एम्स की टक्कर का बनाया जा रहा है। इसके पहले चरण का 85 फीसदी काम कंप्लीट हो चुका है। बाकी काम पूरा करने में छह महीने का टाइम लग सकता है। इसके साथ ही नई बिल्डिंग फूडकोर्ट कैफेटेरिया और अटेंडेंट ब्लॉक तैयार हो रहे हैं। इसे भी नवंबर 2009 तक कंप्लीट कर लेने का दावा किया जा रहा है। पहले फेज में 35 करोड़ रुपये के करीब खर्च किए जा रहे हैं। पूरे प्रोजेक्ट पर लगभग 510 करोड़ रुपये का एस्टिमेट तैयार किया गया है।

प्रदेश की सीएम मायावती के ड्रीम प्रोजेक्ट को साकार करने के लिए इन दिनों अथॉरिटी के एंजीनियर दिन रात एक किए हुए हैं। अथॉरिटी के सूत्रों ने बताया कि हॉस्पिटल की सुध मायावती ने 6 जनवरी 2008 को नोएडा विजिट के दौरान ली थी। तब से इस पर काम शुरू हो गया था। अब यह साकार रूप लेने लगा है। अथॉरिटी एंजीनियरों ने बताया कि यह प्रोजेक्ट लगभग 510 करोड़ रुपये की लागत का है।

इसमें दो चरणों में काम होना है। जून 2010 तक पूरे हॉस्पिटल कैंपस का काम कंप्लीट कर लिया जाएगा। लगभग 40 हजार वर्ग मीटर में फैले हॉस्पिटल कैंपस के पहले चरण में पुरानी बिल्डिंग का कायाकल्प पूरा हो चुका है। चमाचम फर्श, चमकते टाइल्स व शीशे के साथ ही वातानुकूलित बिल्डिंग तैयार हो गई है। इस प्रोजेक्ट से जुडे़ एंजीनियरों ने बताया कि पुरानी बिल्डिंग के नक्शे में फेरबदल किया गया है। रिसेप्शन को बेहतर लुक दिया गया है।

इसके साथ ही विजिटर के बैठने के लिए लंबी चौड़ी लॉबी बनाई गई है। ढाई मंजिला बिल्डिंग में हाई स्पेशिफिकेशन व लेटेस्ट टेक्नॉलजी के उपकरण लगाए जाएंगे। इस का सीधा मुकाबला प्राइवट हॉस्पिटलों से होगा। इसके लिए हॉस्पिटल में प्राइवट, सेमी प्राइवट के अलावा जनरल वॉर्ड बनाए जा रहे हैं। गेट के ठीक सामने आठ मंजिला फूड कोर्ट तैयार किया जा रहा है। इसमें रेस्तरां, कैफेटेरिया, नर्सिन्ग कक्ष और अटेंडेंट ब्लॉक होंगे।

दूसरे फेज में 220 बेड का 6 मंजिला हॉस्पिटल बनेगा। इसके बेसमंट का काम शुरू हो गया है। इस के पास ही मेडिकल स्टाफ के लिए 350 फ्लैट तैयार होंगे। ये फ्लैट 10 से 18 मंजिल वाली बिल्डिंग में होंगे। हॉस्पिटल कैंपस में ही डबल बेसमंट का प्रावधान किया गया है। इसमें एक साथ 1200 गाड़ियों की पार्किन्ग की जा सकेगी। इसके लिए 11 मीटर गहरी खुदाई की गई है। यह काम जून 2010 तक पूरा हो जाएगा।

The Fortis International Oncology Centre, inaugurated today, has an exclusive tie up with International Oncology Services Private Limited (IOSPL).

IOSPL, in turn, has a strategic collaboration with with Albert Einstein Cancer Centre, New York, for research and treatment, technology transfer, on-going training of doctors and staff from India, clinical trials and physicist services, radiation planing services.

Among other facilities, the Fortis institute promises to provide Uttar Pradesh's first PET CT Scan, a technology which is considered to be the best in cancer diagnosis.

Governor Rajeshwar speaking on the occasion said, "Incidences of cancer are increasing throughout the country and in our state. Setting up of such centres is definitely the need of the hour for the state to bring critical healthcare closer to people." The inaugural function was also attended by Shivinder Mohan Singh, Managing Director, Fortis Healthcare, who highlighted about the institute's operation in the country.

Source: smaylive.com UP Guv inaugurates cancer centre at Noida

A CGHS dispensary has been a long-standing demand of the people of this city .Significantly, a large number of residents here are central government employees, but there is no medical facility for them.In 2006, the Union Ministry of Health had sanctioned a CGHS for Greater Noida but in the absence of suitable premises the dispensary couldn't be opened.

The GNIDA was demanding a monthly rent of Rs 51,011 from the Directorate of Health for the premises it was providing."The matter got stuck as the GNIDA demand was unexpected. Once again we approached the CGHS Directorate and requested them to agree on this rent. This process took about 6-8 months. But by the time the Directorate sent a letter to GNIDA agreeing to pay the monthly rent of Rs 51,011, GNIDA hiked the amount to Rs 91,473. And the issue was again stuck," says Ramesh Negi of Lok Kalyan Samiti, Greater Noida.

The Samiti had been following up the issue for a long time."Now that the CEO has agreed to give premises free of cost, we hope that a dispensary will be started soon," says Negi.

Health minister A Ramadoss told the Rajya Sabha during question hour that the 50-year-old institute's infrastructure was facing tremendous pressure as on an average 8,000 to 9,000 patients visited the institute every day from all over the country for treatment. He said the new campus would help lessen the load on main AIIMS campus.

Asked about the recent death of children in clinical trials at AIIMS, he said an inquiry into the incident has revealed that the deaths were not due to negligence by doctors.

The children were in a critical stage and even if the drugs were not given, there was very slim chance of their survival, he said adding the clinical trials followed the stringent laid down procedure that included taking the consent of parents or relatives before administering the drugs.

In reply to another question about medical facilities in the north-eastern states, the minister said the government is in the process of upgrading several medical institutions in the area to ensure that people from the region do not have to go to other parts of the country for treatment.

Known plastic surgeon Anup Dhir has launched a 24-hour helpline to provide ready and quick tips on how to treat burn injuries during the festival of lights.

The helpline will be functional from Oct 23. Diwali is on Oct 28.

Dhir, who is a senior consultant cosmetic surgeon in the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and has been running the helpline since 1998, said people have no clue of how to tend to cracker burns.

'A small tip can help ease the person's pain. I am not treating but advising them what should be done and what should be avoided if one gets burns,' he added.

For assistance, call 09312377554, he said. It will be functional till Oct 30 and the doctor will pick up the phone himself.

'The most important thing regarding burn injuries is that 95 percent of them are accidental and can be prevented with care and precautions. People try their own home remedies which wouldn't help. One needs professional help,' Dhir told IANS.

The doctor said he started the concept 10 years ago after he saw in the hospital that maximum number of patients after Diwali were those who had burnt themselves while bursting crackers.

'People don't know how and in which situation to pour water. I will simply guide them and then they could go to their nearest hospital. People panic and act foolishly, which worsens the situation. Some people even apply toothpaste. It is not the solution,' he said.

He said he gets dozens of phone calls before and after Diwali and these peak on Diwali.

Dhir said statistics show that 38 percent of injuries involve hands and fingers and 19 percent eyes.

About half of the injuries are burns, especially in the face, hand, wrist or arm, he said. 'Contusions and lacerations are the next most common kind of injuries.'

Forty percent of those who suffered such injuries are children below the age of 14, and it is mostly boys in the age group of 10 to 14, the expert said.

'Diwali is the festival of lights and happiness and that is what it should be. Playing with firecrackers, especially the big ones, should be avoided,' he advised.

He suggested that firecrackers should be lit in an open area and a bucket of water should always be kept nearby.

'The best is to say no to firecrackers. This would surely mean a happy and safe Diwali,' Dhir said.