Health

Around four years ago, several hospitals, including Calcutta Medical Research Institute, BM Birla Heart Research Centre and Wockhardt (now Fortis), had seriously considered introducing air ambulance service with leased helicopters. But the idea never really took off due to logistics of operating from the Race Course that does not have any air traffic control centre.

The four-seater Cessna SkyHawk will, however, be operating between Kolkata airport and other operational airports or airfields of World War II vintage in the region. "The facility will be available 24?7 and be of use to anyone who has the means but cannot find emergency care," said Medica chairman Aloke Ray.

Pointing out that patients from towns like Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Gaya, Darbhanga, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Behala, Cooch Behar, Jhargram, Midnapore, Bagdogra, Agartala, Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat and Silchar were often unable to reach or avail the services of a well-equipped medical facility in times of emergency, Ray said the air evacuation and consultancy service would provide the much-needed option.

"The four-seater SkyHawk can be deployed to pick up the patient and one relative for transportation to the hospital in Kolkata. If required, a doctor may be flown in to accompany the patient. An ambulance will be present at the airport for the hospital transfer. If the patient cannot be airlifted, then Medica will fly a doctor to see the patient at his/her location," the chairman said.

The reality, however, is that the city's poor will have to wait for quite some time till the BPL list is published. The preceding Left-run board had prepared a provisional list, but it was full of errors. Scrutiny is yet to be over for making a final list.

Whatever the case, KMC has already tied up with National Insurance Company to provide insurance to as many as 11.5 lakh BPL families. Under the scheme, each member in a family of seven will enjoy a maximum coverage of Rs 15,000 a year. The civic body's social sector department will contribute Rs 11 crore annually as premium to the insurance company. The matter was passed in the mayor-in-council meeting on Saturday and will be placed before the House, the highest decision-making body in KMC, for its approval.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said on Saturday that special help desks would be set up for this purpose in each of the 15 KMC borough offices. "We have decided to open help desks with representatives of National Insurance in all borough offices to help the target beneficiaries," Chatterjee said.

Source: Times Of India KMC mulls health cover for 11.5L BPL families

The four maternity homes are at Darjipara, Garden Reach, Khidderpore and Champaboni.

"They do not even provide meals to patients. After taking charge, I visited all the homes and held meetings with the medical officers. Surprisingly, the previous board did not even arrange a refrigerator for storage of medicines," he said.
Mr Ghosh said that the KMC would first start the operations at the Garden Reach Maternity Home. "From July 1, we are arranging for amenities like ambulances and kitchens to provide food to the patients, medicine supply and upgradation of labour rooms," he said.

"There is no big hospital in the area, where mothers-to-be can be admitted for surgical emergency. We have kept this as an important agenda in the first member-in-council meeting to be held on June 28," Mr Ghosh said.

Worst part ~ they do it in full view of police officers posted at the hospital.

When this correspondent went to the hospital and enquired about the amount they charge for "admitting" patients to the emergency ward, one of them ~  Rajen Mullick ~ said they charge around Rs 5,000 for a bed and for admitting the patient on the floor they charge around Rs 2,000.

Some hospital officials too seek their help often. To get the laboratory test conducted fats they look to the touts who manage it before hospital staff.

Most of the touts were seen giving their mobile phone numbers to the relatives of the patients so that in case of an emergency they can be contacted.

Source: The Statesman By Sulagna Sengupta Touts tighten grip on SSKM

The mobile telephony industry feels the potential is enormous in India, as there are more than 600 million people who are currently using cellphones, and some 20 million get added every month. "It's a great opportunity in a country like India," said India's ace cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty.

"Now, with 3G, there are possibilities of remote treatment and diagnosis of patients through mobile phones. This will become mainstream in another two-three years," he said.

Mr Shetty, a pioneer in Indian tele-medicine, plans to connect mobile phones in remote locations to deliver advanced healthcare. He has been doing so with satellite-linked networks, but now plans to move to the mobile network as it will reduce the huge costs involved and allow his medicos to move from place to place. "The trials will start soon," he said.

Source: Economic Times Mobile healthcare may soon become real

"In between the government health care sector which is availed by 70 per cent of the state's population, and the private sector, we are looking for public-private partnership in the critical areas to synergise the government's resources and the expertise of the private sector," Bhattacharjee said, inaugurating the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata (I-NK).

Describing the institute as a "new feather in the state's cap", Bhattacharjee said it will offer new facilities in various areas of neuro-sciences.

Inspired by Swami Lokeswarananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, the institute was set up as a non-profit by U K-based neurosurgeon R P Sengupta in collaboration with the state Health Department and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

For this, the Centre has provided Rs 100 crore and the state government would sanction Rs 54 crore, Bhattacharjee told the 175th anniversary celebrations of the Medical College and Hospital, the country's oldest, here.

On the medical services in the state, the chief minister said 70 per cent of the people still received health services in state-run hospitals.

Bhattacharjee said the government was alive to the deficiencies of the sector and trying to improve services.

"Efforts would be made by the Railways to build the hospital with the collaboration of AIIMS and CMC, Vellore, so that the expertise in specialised treatment is available from these two renowned institutions," Banerjee told a function at Chanditala in Tollygunge area in the metropolis.

Stating that it would be named after late film director Tapan Sinha, Banerjee said though the hospital would provide treatment to railway employees and their families, 50 per cent of the 150-bed hospital would be reserved for the general public.

The Rural Health Regulatory Authority Bill 2009, passed on December 16, provides for the new diploma course, which will churn out health practitioners authorized to treat specified minor ailments, prescribe medicines and issue death certificates in villages. They cannot administer injections or perform surgery.

"The sole intention of the government behind framing the bill is to tide over the manpower crisis in the rural health care system. MBBS doctors often refuse to go to the villages and stay there. We want to send these diploma-holders to villages to treat people there," says state Health Minister Surjya Kanta Mishra, a prominent leader of LF major, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

But several partners in the state's ruling LF are peeved over what they call CPI-M's high-handedness and the first instance of a unanimous decision of the LF committee being disregarded by the government. LF allies Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) had expressed their reservations about the Bill in a closed-door meeting of the ruling combine.

"It was decided in the Left Front meeting that the Bill would be sent to the assembly's select committee for review as intensive discussions were needed on it. This Bill will create two grades of doctors - those fully qualified for the cities and those half-qualified forrural Bengal."

Source: indiaedunews.net Rural health legislation creates political divide

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

Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said the launch of the knee clinic is another milestone for the group. The clinic would function on a protocol-driven approach ensuring prevention, early diagnosis and effective treatment through a complete disease management programme.

The clinic has a dedicated operation theatre and physiotherapy department. Dr Rupali Basu, chief executive officer, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, said treatment options include knee replacement surgery and arthroscopic (key-hole) repairs.

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.

State health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra announced this in the Assembly yesterday and expressed hope that the proposed amendment would increase availability of organs for patients suffering from renal failure or some other terminal illnesses. A large number of such patients, Mishra pointed out, do not survive because there are inadequate donors. The minister also announced that the government would take steps to boost organ harvesting from the brain dead.

The Bengal government's response to the Centre's proposed amendment to the Human Organs Act, 1994, follows a letter from the Centre to all states seeking their views on the issue. The proposed amendments include a proposal allowing grandchildren and grandparents to donate organs as "near relatives".

Under the existing law, an organ can be donated by a "near relative" (parents, children, spouse, siblings) or by someone whose only motive is to save a life.

Source: The Telegraph Bengal nod for change in Centre's organ law

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

The sops have made the civic coffers poorer by Rs 50 crore, said an official.

Over half a dozen major private hospitals are scheduled to come up off the EM Bypass by the year-end, including Tata Cancer Hospital, Desun, AMRI, Okhardt and Eastern India Health Foundation. An institute of neurosciences is coming up at Mullickbazar.

"The CMC has tried to generate interest about east Calcutta among private healthcare providers by giving them an alluring package of concessions and exemptions with respect to building sanction fees, property tax rate and other fees. The civic authorities will also take up the construction and maintenance of roads, street lights and water supply facilities around the upcoming units," said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

A poor patient, however, cannot just walk into a swanky hospital and get treated at a reduced cost; he will have to approach the civic body.

Source: The Telegraph Sops for hospitals to treat poor