India Medtronic has extended its ‘Healthy Heart for All’ (HHFA) programme to more than 70 hospitals in India. An innovative business model based on EMI scheme, HHFA has already financed 200 cardiac procedures. The programme is enabling those in dearth of finances to support their treatment and has benefitted people across 22 cities in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Durgapur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune among others.
The programme addresses key barriers of affordability, lack of proper diagnostic facilities and lack of awareness in making the right treatment available to the patients. With the help of the EMI system, patients can take loans for buying expensive cardiac devices and pay in installments starting from as low as Rs 1,000 per month.
“Healthy Heart for All is an initiative from Medtronic to help patients get access to life saving cardiac treatment they need. Barriers like low awareness, inadequate diagnosis, and affordability constraints are the key reasons for the large number of cardiac patients not being able to get the right treatment in time. We, at Healthy Heart for All, are committed to addressing these barriers and making cardiac therapies accessible to all via this innovative approach. The results are very gratifying, especially when we see people move from a state of hopelessness to getting the appropriate treatment and living longer and better lives,” said Milind Shah, Vice-President, South Asia and Managing Director India Medtronic. HHFA was piloted in 2010 at Durgapur’s Mission Hospital and Ahmedabad’s CIMS Hospital. On the back of the early success, the programme has been scaled up across the country. The programme required broad collaboration to develop a care delivery ecosystem that is geographically appropriate for India and invests in patients’ long-term health and future growth.
EH News Bureau