Express Healthcare

Second edition of Healthcare Sabha kickstarts in Vizag

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Hosted by Express Healthcare, it has bought together public health leaders and experts to facilitate constructive dialogues between the stakeholders of public health and create a manifesto for a healthy India

‘Co-creating a Manifesto for a Healthy India’ is the theme in the second edition of Healthcare Sabha, – The National Thought Leadership Forum for Public Healthcare. Held at Novotel Varun Beach, in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, from 9-11, February, 2017, it started off with a welcome address by Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare. She took the audience through the vision of the event and welcomed them to three days of knowledge sharing through debates and discussions on various aspects of public health.

Hon’able Union Minister for Health Dr JP Nadda’s video message also awaited the participants of Healthcare Sabha 2017. He congratulated The Indian Express Group and Express Healthcare for creating a platform like Healthcare Sabha and highlighted the need for such events to facilitate constructive dialogues between the stakeholders in the arena of public health.

It was followed by an interesting panel discussion on a crucial topic which has severe adverse effects on India’s goal to ensure Universal Health Coverage to its citizens – talent crunch. Moderated by Dr Farhat Mantoo, Regional Coordinator HR, MSF, South Asia, the session boasted of an eminent panel comprising Prof AK Mahapatra, Chief, Neuroscience Centre, AIIMS, Delhi; Dr Madhumita Dobe, Director- Professor & Dean, All India Institute of Public Health (AIIPH); Sudeep Srivastava, Director, Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY); Dr Pravin Shingare, Director, Directorate of Medical Education & Research, Maharashtra; and Dr DK Sharma, Medical Superintendant, AIIMS. The panelists discussed the topic in detail and deliberated on the ways to mitigate the talent crunch, both in terms of capacity and competence in public health.

The panelists also recommended measures for talent generation and management which included assessing the current regulatory systems in terms of efficacy and effectiveness, creating more need-based skill slabs, training more allied healthcare workers, encouraging professionals to take up teaching which in turn will add capacity among medical practitioners, integrating AYUSH practitioners in mainstream medical practice, charting a more clear career path for public health professionals to incentivise them, optimising the currently available resources, being more open to innovation in creating and retaining talent etc.

The next speaker was Jitendar Sharma, Director & CEO, who spoke on sustainable health financing systems and elaborated on how it touches various segments of the healthcare sector including health services, medicines, diagnostic services and health promotion and education. He also gave a rundown on the myriad financing programmes being implemented in the various parts of the country and their impact. At the same time, he also cautioned on the need for more streamlined processes such as third part audits of these programmes for better transparency and efficiency.

The last session for the day was addressed by Dr Suresh Saravdekar, Director, The Rural Health & Education Centre, who spoke on NLEM, procurement practices and patient safety. He spoke on the need for quality in medicines as well as in their usage. He also elaborated on bridging the difference between various generic medicines. He advised people to move from quality assumed to quality assured.

The day came to a close with a networking dinner.

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