-The Economic Times MUMBAI: India, the world's largest exporter of morphine sulphate, has very little of the drug to offer its terminally ill patients suffering from cancer and HIV. The supply of morphine, a narcotic pain reliever used for treating pain, is severely constrained in local hospitals and retail stores due to stringent laws that prevent and hinder companies from making and transporting the final product. Morphine sulphate is a byproduct of...

-Down to Earth Centre drafts guidelines to regulate clinical establishments; Indian Medical Association resists After expressing resentment over the Centre’s efforts to regulate medical education, doctors are now up in arms against its move to regulate clinical establishments that are flourishing without any accountability. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest body of doctors in the country, is threatening to sue several state governments if they enforce the Clinical Establishments (Registration and...

-The Indian Express Patna: Over 16,000 hysterectomies (surgical removal of the uterus), most of them “unnecessary”, have been reported at private hospitals across Bihar during the last one year allegedly to “avail insurance benefit” under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna.   The RSBY was launched by the Centre in April 2008. Preliminary investigation by Samastipur, Madhubani and Chhapra district authorities, which reported the maximum number of complaints, showed 10,000 hysterectomies took place in these...

-The Telegraph The state government is trying to work out a health insurance scheme to cover 10 lakh families living below the poverty line who do not benefit from the Centre’s Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). At present about 25 lakh BPL families qualify for benefits under the central scheme while there are more than 35 lakh BPL families in the state according to a survey conducted a couple of years ago. The...

-Frontline Health activists say the health chapter of the Twelfth Plan document exaggerates the role of the private sector in providing health care. The draft chapter on health for the Twelfth Five Year Plan document not only is grossly inadequate in its approach but exaggerates to unrealistic levels the role of the private sector in providing health care. It invokes the concept of universal health care (UHC), but, critics say, it...