The Health of India – Uttar Pradesh Summit saw the speakers dwell on reasons why the state and the country has been able to get some control on the pandemic so far. The speakers also stressed on the need for inter-sectoral collaboration to overcome public health challenges.
By Health Analytics Asia
The fifth edition of the Health of India virtual E-Summit – Health of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, was held on 22 October 2021, that featured Jai Pratap Singh, Minister of Medical Health, Family and Child Welfare Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh as the keynote speaker, along with a host of other eminent speakers from the health sector.
While recounting how the state went from a modest testing of seventy a day to about four lakh twenty thousand today, he said the state has gone about taking charge of the pandemic in a systematic and organized way. He said, “It has been a tremendous experience as far as COVID pandemic is concerned. Along with the management, we created an ICCC – Integrated Control and Command Centre in each and every district, which ensured, through the call center, that every household was connected – every positive patient who was under home isolation, was called upon and given doctor’s consultation. Twice in ten days, they were visited upon, we gave them sufficient medicines, gave them oximeters, and infrared thermometers, and in case there was a change in temperature, they were shifted in ambulances, to the required hospitals.”
Singh also mentioned that things have changed in the state. He said, “Uttar Pradesh has changed. Uttar Pradesh is much more modern, much more efficient, and has a good accountability system and am sure that in the near future, Uttar Pradesh will be delivering a very solid, good health infrastructure and health services to the people of the state.”
Some of the speakers attributed this success story to inter-sectoral collaboration. Dr Gyanendra Nath Singh, Chairman, Growth Pharmaceuticals, and Former Drug Controller General of India said, “I am expecting that Uttar Pradesh is going to change the dynamics of the health sector. The pharma sector will be playing an important role and intersectoral and intra-sectoral cooperation is the need of the hour.”
Echoing Dr Singh’s thoughts, Dr O P Yadava, CEO and Chief Cardiac Surgeon, National Heart Institute said, “We need to have politically agnostic health messaging to increase the uptake of health in public. Everywhere we see political overtones even in health and that should go away and if we do that, going forward the future is bright. Instead of bemoaning what has gone wrong, move forward with the intersectoral collaboration.”
Harnessing technology to combat health crisis of a pandemic nature is central to winning the battle, felt the speakers. Indhudhara Basavaraja, Industry Customer Advisor SAP said, “Healthcare and Life Sciences have always been fairly good adopters of technology. But I feel the pandemic has been an accelerator in this particular sense. If you look at healthcare as a vertical, what is important from their perspective is, how do I improve patient experiences, how do I subscribe to patient outcomes, how do I operate smarty and efficiently, how do I take data driven decisions and how can I empower my workforce? So, these are five major things we see in the healthcare sector. “
Anand K, CEO, SRL Diagnostics felt that the response of the healthcare sector to the pandemic has been impressive. He stressed on how public-private partnership came to the fore during the pandemic. He said, “In many places private sector has contributed in terms of augmenting the resources required for testing especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, we have seen of collaborative efforts happening, and those things have to continue and taken to a next level.”
Atish Majumdar, President Mankind Pharma was of the view that the pandemic has changed the way we look at healthcare. He said, “The small virus has resulted in a tectonic shift in the way we approach healthcare. From an economy which is mainly illness-care, COVID brought about a shift in our approach and today we are thinking more healthcare, than illness-care. “
Abhijit Banerji, Managing Director, FINISH Society, and Country Coordinator, FM India thought the pandemic has sent the country back to basics, which was a good thing, He said, “We have talked about COVID times – the impact of basic things like handwash, and using proper toilets while these are basic, that was also the crying need of the country. Thanks to the Prime Minister, there is a lot of focussed change on the ground.”
To conclude, the speakers were asked to make one recommendation to the Union Health Minister or the State Health Ministers – about what they would like to see.
Dr Yadava said, “Instead of taking health as a Centre-Left socialist attitude, we should have a Centre-right attitude. Profits should be encouraged even in government institutions because that brings in efficiency.”
Anand K said, “There is a shortage of frontline workers in healthcare, so we need to create more platforms for education where we can get trained personnel who can be used by the facilities we have created.”
Basavaraja said, “There is scope for technological adoption across different states of India. As a nation, we have still room for improvement in terms of adoption of technology.”
Dr Singh said, “Invention will be the key for the success of healthcare sector. I will recommend networking between institutions and national laboratories.”
Banerji said, “On the sanitation front, the government should continue with its focus that it had on phase one because as WHO says every dollar invested in sanitation results in 9 dollars to the GDP. So, it makes eminent sense.”
Majumdar said, “Governments should drive ease of doing business. Not only UP, but also other states. There must be policies that make prices more predictable in the pharma industry, because that leads to long term investments.”
The Summit concluded with Flash Talks by Swati Dometti, Assistant VP, Strategic Alliances and Partnerships, BeatO, Ashish Bajaj, Marketing Head, MediBuddy, and Prof Farzana Mahdi, VC, Era Medical University Lucknow.
You can watch the entire Summit here
The post “Uttar Pradesh has changed. Uttar Pradesh is much more efficient, and has a good accountability system”: Jai Pratap Singh, Health Minister, Uttar Pradesh appeared first on Health Analytics Asia.
