Conference

Hosmac Projects Conference: 'Redefining Healthcare Infrastructure'

Healthcare in Kolkata is an untapped potential and has an opportunity for growth The first ever summit healthcare conference, organised by Hosmac, in Kolkata took place on the 5th of December. The stakeholders, featuring the crème-de-la-crème of the healthcare industry, came together to deliberate on the key infrastructural aspects demanding attention in our healthcare system.

Kanti Ganguly, MIC, Sunderban Development Affairs, Government of West Bengal lighting the ceremonial lamp; flanked by the Mayor of Howrah, Dr Vivek Desai and Dr Shuvendu Dutta

Organised by Hosmac, a leading healthcare planning and management consulting firm, the conference had 're-defining healthcare infrastructure' as its theme. While delivering the welcome address, Dr Vivek Desai, Managing Director, Hosmac India Private Limited, explained the rationale behind the theme and location of the conference. Citing the example of the other metropolitan cities in the country, he opined that the Kolkata has slightly lagged behind in terms of the rapid strides made in the healthcare scenario. He believes that there is untapped potential and opportunity for the region to grow - the company incidentally has the highest concentration of offices in the Eastern region (at Kolkata, Guwahati & Patna).

Kanti Ganguly, a Cabinet Minister in the West Bengal Government, who was also the Chief Guest, echoed similar sentiments - that the pre-eminence which the city enjoyed prior to independence has changed somewhat and though a number of specialty hospitals have come up, a lot still remains to be done. Speaking from experience, DN Agarwal, Executive Director of AMRI Hospital, added during the course of his speech that around 150 people from Orissa travel down South each day for medical treatment and the same trend applies for most of the other states in the Eastern region as well. The Mayor of Howrah, Gopal Mukherjee, who was the Guest of Honour, called for the implementation of global standards and benchmarks in hospitals & healthcare institutions. He has suggested the utilisation of the skills of experts and consultants for the region to retain its former glory as a healthcare hub.

The inaugural session was followed by four academic sessions with renowned subject matter experts as speakers and moderators. The conference focused specifically on topics like facility management and safety aspects in hospital infrastructure; regulatory framework for hospital infrastructure to ensure the quality aspects; the need for energy efficiency in hospital buildings; insight into an energy efficient hospital through a case study; the challenges and opportunities in a Brownfield project; optimisation strategies in implementing Brownfield projects; healthcare business models - real estate developers' perspective; the expectations of private sector healthcare groups from the real estate developers. The conference came alive during the question and answer sessions which followed each of the academic sessions.

The participants were particularly interested in the session on energy management. Satish Bhalerao, one of the speakers for the session, made a strong pitch for 'reducing the use of electricity, checking the fuel usage, using renewable source of energy and recycling the resources'. The session also featured a case study on the award winning energy management practices and use of non-conventional energy sources at Jehangir Hospital, Pune. The only overseas speaker in the conference, Uday Kumar Alaham from Dubai, reminded the audience that "Safe healthcare design is not simply about nicer or fancier hospitals but the focus should be to create hospitals that actually help patients recover, be safer and help staff perform better."

The results of the post conference survey revealed consistently high ratings and positive comments from the attendees' for the overall management and hospitality during the event. "As organisers, we not only drew inspiration from the successful organization of the event, there was this great sense of belonging as well at being able to interact with the key members of the healthcare community in the region" said Dr Shuvendu Dutta, Regional Manager,Hosmac Kolkata.

EH News Bureau