Bhubaneswar: Odisha is lagging in the restriction of infant and maternal mortality rate, said world renowned heart surgeon and chairman of Medanta Hospital Dr Naresh Trehan.
Speaking at the seventh edition of Odisha Television Limited (OTV)’s annual convention-Foresight 2017, Trehan said, “If you consider infant and maternal mortality, Odisha is lagging behind the rest of India in some ways. There is an imbalance in affordability, accessibility because of the fact that large proportions of our people are uninsured and they have to pay out of the pocket."
"The data is very disturbing that how two percent of our population every year is pushed from above poverty line to below poverty line by healthcare expenses. So this is a very immoral state and is emerging as a big issue,” Trehan added.
“There is a huge disconnect in the actual stream how healthcare flows. Primary health centres and sub centres are not functioning in India because there is a great disproportion in the availability of infrastructure, but more importantly of trained medical and paramedical personnel. Especially in Odisha, we have the lowest paucity of doctors for thousand populations,” he added.
“Making a doctor is a process of 10 years. So we have lagged behind in the last 75 years and not planned how we need to bring health care to our people,” Trehan stated.
“The first thing for healthcare for any country, any community or any state is first to decrease the disease burden, second- developing the ASHA workers into frontline health workers, third-utilising existing capacities of public healthcare infrastructure at all levels of care, fourth- identifying areas of private sector collaboration in improving accessibility and fifth- implementing a composite and hybrid insurance model to provide financial protection for poor population,” he informed.
“The thrust areas to achieve universal healthcare is- Mobile medical units with medical professionals, diagnostics equipments and minor surgery facilities to conduct regular visits,” he further stated.
“Now technology has added a huge reach for us. If you can get cable TV to home, then you can also get telemedicine to home. With the telemedicine and other multiplier available with us, one can actually access the best of specialist in the best of places remotely,” he said.
“We have proposed the central government to raise the universal insurance-RSBY for BPL patients amount to Rs 60,000 from Rs 30,000 and give a life cover of Rs 2 lakh. In response to that, the government has announced that each BPL family will get a life cover of Rs 1 lakh. Once this happens, the accessibility will improve significantly. I am glad to know some 5,000 beds have been created here by private operators,” he concluded.