-The Telegraph New Delhi: Health experts today criticised a government delay in implementing a proposed daily drug therapy for tuberculosis Patients, meant to reduce the risk of relapse after completion of treatment. Although the health ministry had itself last year released TB treatment standards emphasising a move towards daily therapy, virtually all Patients treated under the government TB control programme receive thrice-a-week therapy, which carries a higher risk of relapse. A consortium of...

-Frontline Kerala is facing a situation where health care costs are leading more and more people, not just low-income families, to financial distress. KERALA is once again drawing attention to itself, this time for a persistent trend of a large number of households being pushed into financial ruin because of the expenses incurred for medical care. Several studies have now found evidence for the many facets of this worrying development in a...

-The Hindu West Bengal: A unique initiative involving the West Bengal Health Department and a non-government organisation here on Monday has brought hope to mentally ill Patients of Kolkata's Pavlov Hospital. Ostracized by society and abandoned by their family members, Patients of the biggest mental health facility in West Bengal can now dream of financial independence and a life beyond the confines of the hospital. A memorandum of understanding for Dhobhi Ghar,...

-The Hindu Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's announcement of new AIIMS-like institutions, tax sops for those who buy health insurance, and Rs. 33,150 crore allocation has given the health sector little to cheer. Though the draft of the government's new national health policy wants public health expenditure to increase to 2.5 per cent of the GDP, the allocation seems insufficient to meet the government's ambitious universal health assurance mission that includes free...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley today promised gifts for children, women, Patients and the poor but slashed his government's funding across the social sectors. Budget outlays for education, health, rural development, social justice and women and children have fallen sharply or remain close to the outlays these sectors had received last year. The allocation for children under the women and child development ministry witnessed the sharpest fall from last...