ET : How can healthcare be made affordable? : Nov 13,2007
How can healthcare be made affordable?
Public healthcare in India is a double-whammy. A dysfunctional state sector has often yielded space to quacks and crooks. The issue is one of reliability and access. Three experts thrash it out.
I SS U ES
Does the solution lie in consolidating and expanding state-based delivery?
Will a greater emphasis on drug price control help?
How can medical insurance be made more acceptable and affordable?
SANGITA REDDY
ED (Operations) Apollo Hospitals Group
EVERY healthcare system around the world is constantly working to meet with three objectives: Equitable access, high quality and low cost. For care providers, these are often competing objectives, with the tradeoffs among these goals usually ridden with economic, social and political implications.
V RAJA
CEO, GE Healthcare, South Asia
TODAYS healthcare system is antiquated both ideologically and technologically. Healthcare practice today focuses disproportionately on disease maintenance with 70% to 80% of healthcare costs spent on therapy or treatment, and only 20-30% on diagnosis. What we need is a paradigm shift. Todays primary care physician should be armed with the sophisticated technology of todays specialists: portable ultrasound units to detect early heart disease, advanced bone mineral density scanners to catch osteoporosis and electronic medical records (EMRs) to improve the quality and safety of care. From reorienting the healthcare system toward early health through diagnosis and prevention, to harnessing the great power of information through technology, there is an opportunity for medical professionals to embrace a new set of core beliefs. This shift can help clinicians detect disease earlier, access more information and monitor and intervene earlier with targeted treatments, enabling patients to live their lives to the fullest and reduce costs.
The benefits of technology and workflows used in healthcare today can be infinitely enhanced. Most available medical treatments only succeed on 50% to 60 % of the population. Diagnostics can reveal exactly how those therapies are working and if theyre working quickly enough. For example, with a PET scan, doctors can see within 24 hours if chemotherapy is working on an individual. Without the technology, it could take 18 weeks. The latest technology needs to be made available at reduced cost through local manufacturing for which there should be adequate incentives and support from the government to enable equipment manufacturers.
SHUBNUM SINGH
Chief Physician Max Healthcare Institute
THE key to sustainability of Indias rapid economic growth lies in the health of its people. As our serviceoriented economy booms, we as a nation will have to evolve mechanisms unique to our social and economic needs in providing healthcare for all.
dharmendra.jore@hindustantimes.com
Publication: ET; Date:Nov 13, 2007; Section: propectives; Page Number:15