Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Aug 22 : Addressing the CII Health Conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), as chief guest here today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh called for establishing a “Make in India” health module, based on public-private partnership as well as multi-centric healthcare collaboration to meet the changing health needs of 21st century India.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Indian society, as a whole, is fast evolving and at the same time, in recent years, India too has become a part of shrunken global world and this phenomenon is impacting every sphere of life including the healthcare system. While on the one hand, disorders like Diabetes and heart disease, which were hitherto confined to urban population, are now also on the rise in rural areas, on the other hand, the access to modern modalities of treatment is confined only to cities and big towns, as a result of which 70% of rural population gets access only to 1/3rd of country’s hospitalization facilities and over 600 million people in the country are deprived of access to affordable healthcare, he added.
Describing the emergence of private sector as an inevitable phenomenon, Dr Jitendra Singh stressed that for a heterogeneous country like India, public sector healthcare was still very much relevant and therefore, called for a healthy synergism between public sector and private sector healthcare agencies.
Referring to the constraints of heterogeneity and diversity, Dr Jitendra Singh mentioned topographical and geographical variations in different regions of India. In this regard, he referred to vast expanses of inaccessible areas in the North East where he had proposed the introduction of Helicopter Care Service in the form of Air Clinics wherein specialist doctor could fly to remote areas to hold the OPD and on way back,could also carry some needy patients requiring hospitalization. The same concept, he said, could also be applied to hill states like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Dr Jitendra Singh invited Dr Naresh Trehan and other health corporate leaders to come forward with concrete proposals which could be put forward before the Health Ministry.
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