09.23.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:02 pm by heaven
NEW DELHI: Delhi Government will soon set up a mechanism to ensure that private hospitals built on subsidised government land provide free treatment to economically weaker sections of the society in the city.
The move came a day after Delhi High Court directed Indraprastha Apollo hospital to reserve at least 200 beds for free treatment to poor patients and imposed a fine of Rs two lakh on it for not complying with the land lease agreement.
"We will set up a monitoring mechanism to check compliance of the land lease agreement with the private hospitals. The hospitals must offer free treatment to the needy patients," Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia said.
Welcoming the High Court ruling, Walia said action will be initiated against the hospitals which do not provide free beds to 33 per cent poor patients in indoor patient department and 40 per cent poor patients in OPD as per the land lease agreement with the government.
Over 20 hospitals had taken land from the government at subsidised rates promising that it will offer free treatment to the poor section of the society in the national capital.
A division bench of Delhi High Court directed the Apollo hospital to comply with the agreement to provide free treatment to poor patients.
The Court directed the Delhi government to set up a special committee to monitor whether the hospital is implementing its direction or not.
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09.22.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:34 pm by heaven
PUNE: The recent swine flu scare has translated into brisk business for health and hygiene sectors. While branded products like Dettol saw a rise in their sales, even local ayurvedic drug manufacturers are marketing their products as protection against the H1N1 virus.
After the flu outbreak, products like eucalyptus oil, homeopathy medicines and disinfectants like Dettol, liquid hand wash and soaps were in great demand. As a senior official from Reckitt Benckiser, global FMCG company and maker of Dettol, puts it: "Demand for our products in this category has risen 40-45% in the past two months in Maharashtra."
After the first few swine flu fatalities, there was a sudden rush to buy personal hygiene products. Kavita Yogesh Kode, owner of a local medical store, said: "Earlier, people did not know much about hand sanitisers. I used to sell one bottle a month. Now, sales are up and I sell about 20 bottles a day." While some local companies have launched new brands of hand sanitisers, others have re-launched their old brands.
Swine flu panic also helped in pushing up sales of several ayurvedic products. After some ayurveda practitioners emphasised that extracts of certain herbs like tulsi, bel ahwagandha etc and burning of camphor may help against the spread of H1N1 virus, demand for these herbs also went up.
Sachin Vetankar, another medical store owner, said: "We have seen a five to six fold increase in the sale of eucalyptus oil. Against a weekly sale of about 3-4 bottles before the outbreak of swine flu, I sold about 50 bottles every day when the scare was at its peak. Now, I sell at least 10 bottles everyday."
In Pune, which saw the highest number of swine flu deaths, the protective N95 and N90 masks were being sold at exorbitant rates in the black market. "Currently, we are selling the N95 mask for Rs 100. But, after the first swine flu death in Pune, these masks were sold at Rs 300-Rs 400 per piece," said a medical store owner.
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09.20.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:37 pm by heaven
CHENNAI: Corporate healthcare group Apollo Hospitals is firming up its foray into the wellness segment. The Chennai-based hospital is keen to engage McKinsey to draw the blueprint in this regard. The wellness business is pegged at Rs 1,500 crore and Apollo has formed a core committee to work on the finer details of the venture.
Apollo Hospitals MD Preetha Reddy said for the moment things are still at a lucid stage. But, the group is looking at appointing the global agency to provide its consulting input to take the plan forward. We are considering the appointment of the agency so that all the details of this venture can be worked out, she told ET.
While she and ED-Finance Suneeta Reddy have been spearheading all illness and health-related aspects of the hospital, the other two sisters Sangita Reddy and Shobana Kamineni are expected to play key role in taking the wellness business forward.
We both have been managing the illness side of Apollo, whereas Sangita and Shobana have been actively planning out how to complement alternative systems with the existing systems of medicine. Preetha Reddy said.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:12 pm by heaven
CHENNAI: Corporate healthcare group Apollo Hospitals is firming up its foray into the wellness segment. The Chennai-based hospital is keen to engage McKinsey to draw the blueprint in this regard. The wellness business is pegged at Rs 1500 crore and Apollo has formed a core committee to work on the finer details of the venture.
Apollo Hospitals MD Preetha Reddy said for the moment things are still at a lucid stage. But, the group is looking at appointing the global agency to provide its consulting input to take the plan forward. "We are considering the appointment of the agency so that all the details of this venture can be worked out," she told ET.
While she and ED-Finance Suneeta Reddy have been spearheading all illness and health-related aspects of the hospital, the other two sisters Sangita Reddy and Shobana Kamineni, are expected to play a key role in taking the wellness business forward.
"We both have been managing the illness side of Apollo, whereas Sangita and Shobana have been actively planning out how to complement alternative systems with the existing systems of medicine. We have been evaluating Ayurveda, homoeopathy and such alternate forms of healthcare," Ms Preetha said.
Apollo, the countrys largest private healthcare player with a network of 46 hospitals and 8,000 beds, is also looking at a possible tie-up with a leading Ayurveda chain to firm up its wellness venture so that it can provide a spectrum of services.
Apart from the complementary medicine systems, Apollo is actively seeking to tap the cosmetic side of the multi-billion dollar wellness business by setting up spas and beauty clinics. Incidentally, Shobana Kaminenis daughter is gearing up for participation in this new business diversification, she said.
Asked about the targeted revenue generation from the wellness venture, Ms Preetha Reddy said it was too early to comment on such details. The hospital has sizeable land parcels in Chittoor (100 acres), Hyderabad campus (both Andhra Pradesh), Lavasa (Maharashtra) and the debut of Apollos wellness foray could be in any of these locations.
Incidentally, in 2007, Apollo and Lavasa Corporation had entered into a pact to cater to geriatric and international patients. At that time, Ms Kamineni said Apollo was planning to develop it as a destination for healthcare and wellness services, research and development and medical education.
Last week, the healthcare group launched a patient-centric programme aimed at improving operational excellence. Initially, six hospitals would be covered under the new format, where emphasis would be given to improve processes, maximise ultisation of assets and bring in manpower efficiency. Like the Toyota model that has clicked for manufacturing companies, the Apollo Way initiative is meant to yield cost savings of around Rs 40 crore over a 24-month period across its hospital network.
Apollo has also slotted a meeting with its core group members to set up three paediatric hospitals in Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Each of this would be a 50-bed hospital. Unlike its greenfield paediatric hospital in the city, these three would use the existing space available for it, she said.
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09.16.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:18 pm by heaven
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While India gets set for the moon mission and promotes itself as a destination for medical tourism, the veritable lifeline of the countrys health sector, namely the availability of blood, presents a badly-wounded picture.
Quite unlike the situation in most developing countries, and even Malawi, which is one of the least developed nations of the world, India has no national blood service, which in simple terms means that when patients are unable to organize blood for their own medical requirements, they could be staring at death.
Experts in the area say that it is difficult to name many countries where citizens admitted to hospital not only have to settle bills, but have to go hunting for blood. The ball park figure of actual blood donation in India is 6-7 million units, which is considered to be less than a sixth of the requirement.
It is not the responsibility of patients to arrange blood, rather it is a social responsibility, says Dr PV Sulochana, blood transfusion officer of the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences here.
According to Dr K Vijayalakshmi of the Regional Cancer Centre here, the number of blood donors is showing an uptick, but the requirement is increasing at a much faster rate, leading to a situation where there is no reserve at the end of the day. A single course of chemotherapy will need about 25 units of blood, and a cancer patient could be undergoing 4-5 courses of chemotherapy. With a large number of new cancer patients being added, swelling the total number of cancer patients undergoing treatment, there seems to be no likelihood of blood supply meeting demand, she says.
According to C Balagopal, managing director of Terumo Penpol, manufacturers of blood bags and blood transfusion equipment, far more than a shortage of funds or technology, the problem has its roots in the lack of a community orientation for blood donation.
India has an estimated 2,500 blood banks and if even a quarter of them functioned efficiently we would not have faced the problems we now have. The situation of blood availability is a murky one, and it is the citizens with acute and chronic diseases who have to suffer in silence. The lack of a national blood service is an embarrassment for any nation in these times, Mr Balagopal says.
Experts in the area say states like Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have a better footing in blood donation, apparently owing to better awareness about donation, and that a significant change can only come with the realization that the society, rather than individual patients, has the responsibility to make safe blood readily available in the required quantity.
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