A NEW DEAL FOR HEALTH
SECTOR
Those who had
visited the national capital in the 1950s may not have missed
the sprawling campus of All India Institute of Medical Science
(AIIMS) which was being build on the Ring Road in south Delhi.
Since 1956, AIIMS has been the premier medical institution for
higher education in medical science, specialised training and
research as well as a major referral hospital.
Although students,
researchers and patients from all over the country and abroad
have been coming to AIIMS, New Delhi, there have been persistent
demands from other States for similar institutions. The Government
did sanction a second AIIMS for the North-East back in 1970s but
for one reason or the other it has taken a long time for the project
to be in place.
Paradigm Shift
However, there
has been a paradigm shift in the scenario now. Under the scheme
"Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana", there is
a proposal to set up six institutions on the pattern of AIIMS
in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal
and Orissa where the Prime Minister has already laid the foundation
stones. The new institutions would be wholly funded and managed
by the Central Government. The concerned State governments have
come forward to make available at least 100 acres of developed
land with provision of water and power connections and approach
roads free of cost.
But six more
AIIMS in addition to the two sanctioned earlier, may not be enough
for a country of India’s size. Since the setting up of a new AIIMS
from the scratch is a costly venture, a new method has been thought
of to provide AIIMS-type medical institutions in other parts of
the country as well. The Government has decided to selectively
upgrade the existing institutions in the remaining under-served
regions to meet the demand for super speciality health services.
While the non-recurring grant for development and upgradation
of infrastructure and equipment will be provided by the Centre,
the concerned State governments will meet the recurring costs.
The hospitals earmarked for upgradation are Jammu Medical College,
Jammu and Kashmir; Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute, Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh; Ranchi Institute of Medical Science, Ranchi, Jharkhand;
Nizam Institute of Medical Science, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh;
Kolkata Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal and Trichy Medical
College, Tiruchirapally, Tamilnadu.
Sanjivani
However, it is
not enough to have more and more hospitals in the country to cater
to the demand for emergency medical services. A country of the
size and diversity of India also requires mobile medical units
to provide emergency treatment to people at their door-step.
Major disasters
such as the severe earthquake in Gujarat and super cyclone in
Orissa as also disaster management in the global context have
established that container-based mobile hospital, if moved to
the disaster site at short notice, would increase the quick response
mechanism and save many preventable deaths. The Centre is acquiring
such units for emergency medical relief. Life saving as it is,
the project is aptly named ‘Sanjivani’, a word immortalised in
the Ramayana where Hanuman brought the life-saving plant
from the Himalayas to the battlefield in Lanka to save the life
of Laxman.
The container-based
mobile hospitals, transported by rail, road or by air, can be
set up at or near the disaster site at short notice. Once installed,
it would be a hospital with 200 beds with operation theatre and
diagnostic facilities including CT scan. This unit is designed
to be self-sufficient having kitchen, water purification, sanitary
unit and its own power generator to cater to the needs of the
hospital inmates.
While the Sanjivani
scheme is in the process of implementation, a pilot project is
proposed to be launched before the end of 2003 with a mobile hospital
in Delhi. For the time being, it will be parked at the Ram Manohar
Lohia Hospital, New Delhi and its doctors will be associated with
the same hospital.
Another scheme
for emergency medical treatment is also under implementation.
For providing immediate treatment to the victims of road accidents
a pilot project for upgradation and strengthening of emergency
facilities at State hospitals in the towns and cities located
on the national highways, is also under implementation. Under
the Scheme of Assistance for Capacity Building, financial assistance
is provided upto a maximum of Rs. 1.50 crore to such hospitals.
The purpose of
the Scheme is to enhance and upgrade the accident and emergency
services in select State government hospitals falling in the accident-prone
areas of the national highways. This is now proposed to be continued
as a centrally-sponsored scheme during the Tenth Five-Year Plan
with an allocation of Rs. 110 crore with around Rs. 20 crore to
be spent each year.
Under the scheme,
the State governments are being advised to identify and give priority
to those hospitals which fall in the proximity of the national
highways forming part of the Golden Quadrilateral and the East-West
and the North-South Corridors. The States are also being advised
to identify other such hospitals which fall in the highly accident-prone
areas of the national highways based on the number of accidents
and casualties.
Swarna Trikon
Ayurveda, Siddha
and other indigenous systems of medicine have protected the health
of our people from time immemorial. Of late, Ayurvedic and other
indigenous medicines have gained popularity both in the country
as well as abroad. In order to discover the treasures of this
ancient system of knowledge and put research on Ayurvedic medicines
on a scientific basis, three professional bodies have formed a
golden alliance. The Swarna Trikon Yojana aims at developing new
Ayurvedic medicines through intensive research and development
activities, pooling resources from the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) and prominent practioners of the indigenous systems of
medicine. Three institutions, CSIR, ICMR and the Department of
Indigenous Systems of Medicine (ISM) of the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare have joined hands by a memorandum of understanding
to promote the R&D activities. The venture has the advantage
of combining the age-old wisdom of Ayurveda with modern scientific
discoveries and methods of analysis.
Guaranteed treatment
and health insurance facilities in the country are still confined
to the government employees and to some others in the corporate
and organised sectors. For the rest, medical insurance in the
country is still too expensive to afford. To cater to this long-felt
need, the Government has decided to launch a Universal Health
Insurance Scheme which can be afforded even by poorer families.
With a premium of only one rupee per day, one can have medical
services worth upto Rs. 30,000 a year. By paying a premium of
one and a half rupee, the beneficiary would be able to insure
a family of five members. (PIB Features)
Contributed
by A.K. Sen Gupta, freelance writer.
