Health is a state of mental, social and physical well-being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity. To achieve this noble objective, India requires health care professionals who are trained in institutions with standardised infrastructure, and the availability of accessible and equitable health care for both the rural and urban populace. Recently, the health sector has been in the news — from the creation of a rural based...

A review found less than 4 per cent beds were occupied by EWS patients at these hospitals; eight facilities rated ‘excellent’ A performance review of the city’s private hospitals has rated 25 facilities as ‘poor’ on compliance of the order for reserving 10 per cent of the total bed strength for patients from economically weaker sections (EWS). The Health department is now in the process of issuing notices to these hospitals. The...

Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...

Medical facilities have collapsed as encephalitis epidemic continues to rage Even as the rest of India recovers from Deepavali celebrations, residents of Poorvanchal have been marking a grim time that descends on the eastern Uttar Pradesh region each year: a time local people call the season of death. Ever since July, 470 people, mostly children, have died of viral encephalitis and its biological cousin, Japanese encephalitis — the first caused by a...

-BBC   Some of the parents of 12 children who died over the last two days in a hospital in the Indian city of Calcutta have accused it of negligence. The deaths of the children follows 25 similar "crib deaths" in June. Staff at the BC Roy hospital have strongly denied the negligence allegations. They say that the infants were admitted in a critical condition. But correspondents say that the hospital is overcrowded, with many...