There are fears that curative health care will be left to the private sector, while the public system will handle preventive and low-quality care. AN issue of The Lancet earlier this year highlighted some of the problems with public health in India, acknowledging that “it is in crisis”. The robust economic growth over the past 20 years has not translated into better health indices; indeed the decline of infant and child...
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Expert group moots a new national health regulatory authority by Aarti Dhar
A report by an expert group on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has suggested wide-ranging institutional reforms to regulate the public and the private sectors to ensure assured quality and rational pricing of healthcare services. The group, set up by the Planning Commission to develop a blue print and investment plan to meet the human resource requirements to achieve health for all by 2020, focuses on rational use of drugs. The extensive...
More »Planning Commission backs shortened medical degree for rural areas by Kounteya Sinha
The controversial three-and-a-half year long medical degree -Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS) -- has now got the backing of Planning Commission's all powerful high level expert group on universal health coverage. The panel has in its report (finalized on Sunday and available with TOI) "endorsed" the all new BRMS cadre and said that as a career progression incentive, they should be promoted to the level of public health officers...
More »Civil society vigil to check female foeticide by Aarti Dhar
Recommending civil society vigil to check female foeticide, a Parliamentary committee has asked the Union Government to ensure that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, is not circumvented to give way to selective abortion in cases of female foeticide. It has also called for synchronisation of this Act with the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PC&PNDT Act), 1994, to check the social evil. It...
More »Bitter 'lauki' juice can kill you, says panel
-The Times of India Do not drink your bottle gourd ('lauki' in Hindi, and 'sorakaya' in Telugu) juice if it tastes bitter, it could kill you. This recommendation comes after some investigation by an experts' committee. The death of 59-year-old scientist, Sushil Kumar Saxena, a deputy secretary in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi in June 2010, spurred an investigation into the effects of the consumption of...
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