The Indian healthcare sector has got its due recognition over a period of time, Healthcare Federation of India Secretary General Anjan Bose feels
About Healthcare Federation of India
For quite some time, the feeling was growing among some of the key stakeholders that the healthcare sector is growing very fast, but all the challenges associated with the sector were also growing.
We came together to build a NASSCOM-like in-stitution in Healthcare. Today you cannot think about IT sector in India without NASSCOM, which was built in the 1980s. I joined the Healthcare Federation of India as Secretary General as I felt it is a wonderful opportunity to do something good in healthcare of the Country.
A few months back the Federation was registered. We are now in the process of getting our logo registered. The vision of this institution would include bringing the various healthcare stakeholders together like the Indian healthcare providers (hospitals), technology providers medical equipment and devices, diagnostic service providers, as well as the healthcare insurance providers. Now we are all set for an official launch within a few months.
Indian Healthcare: A Fascinating Story
The story of Indian healthcare is very fascinating. In the last three decades the sector has gone through a very rich transition. The sector has witnessed tremendous growth in all the segments. Some of the private, corporate players and also leading government institutions have now become some of the best names worldwide.
The Government has done a splendid job in focusing on healthcare in the last few years. A lot of attention has been coming on the different necessary elements of healthcare; the global technology providers have been focusing on the Indian market now.
Technology leaders GE, Philips, Siemens, J&J etc have got their innovation and manufacturing centres in India. In a nutshell, the visibility of the sector, the recognition of the sector as one of the major contributors of growth in the countrys development is much more now, compared to a decade back! I have been associated with Healthcare around the world for three decades now and Im very delighted with the kind of focus Healthcare is getting from all its stakeholders.
I am very happy that it has been recognised that health is wealth. Health and education are two important factors for any countrys development. There are many areas of excellence today in Indian healthcare; in delivery, clinical areas, technology and diagnostic support are just a few of these. One major area of concern is the overall gap in skill set; doctors, nurses, in paramedical and biomedical areas.
We are truly sitting on a dormant volcano today. Indian healthcare is in serious need of trained manpower and all efforts to bridge this gap should be welcome. The other areas which are work in progress are Quality/Regulatory and Infrastructure. We need to speed up our overall efforts as one team in the country in these areas. Government, private, everyone that will result in more appropriate, more accessible healthcare for our Nation as well as attract many more medical tourists.
About Health for All by 2020
I would like to see quality healthcare reachable to all. There are a lot of drives coming from Governments initiatives; the private players are also responding to Government calls. I think overall affordability is important and it is going in the right direction. Still work in progress.
With scope of continued collaborative partnerships amongst private players and with the Government bringing in the right technology supported by disruptive innovation and frugal innovation should help here. Accessibility will much be dependent on technology and how it evolves. Tele-medicine has been catching up, mobile van healthcare reaching greater sections of society yet there is a lot of gap still to be bridged.
High Level Expert Group Report on Universal Health Coverage for India
This report, instituted by the Planning Commission of India, is dedicated to the people of India whose health is our most precious asset and whose care is our most sacred duty.. Its terms of reference cover very important points like developing a blue print for human resources in health for India, developing systems which will ensure access to essential drugs, Vaccines and medical technology by enhancing their availability and reducing cost to the Indian consumer; develop a framework for health financing and financial protection that offers universal access to health services. Most importantly, it also addresses the social determinants of health. This well-thought-of report should be a very good guideline in further improving the healthcare of our great nation across all segments.
To Conclude
For Healthcare Federation of India the vision would include further enhancing the overall image and quality of healthcare considering there is trust deficit among the stakeholders. Our duty will be to help in bringing back the trust/confidence among the stakeholders by being honest to the needs of the nation, by being honest to ourselves thereby enhancing the image of the medical community as a whole.
Also we will need to intensify the domestic innovation and manufacturing aspect so that the import ratio of medical equipment and devices go down to a reasonable level. Over the years, the Government has done very good job of rationalising the import duty and other tariffs but that is not all. To further rationalise the percentage of medical technology import, domestic innovation and manufacturing should have to be increased.
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