-The Times of India BANGALORE: In a blow to government employees, including those who have retired, the Central Government Health Service has announced withdrawal of cashless medical service in private hospitals empanelled with the CGHS scheme from March 7. Patients will henceforth have to cough up hospital charges and later claim the amount from the government, according to the new rule. The move will affect 50 lakh serving employees and over 30...

-IPS News THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Balakrishnan, a labourer from Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was suffering from oral cancer. He was admitted to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram. After the first course of radiation therapy, the 60-year-old could not eat or drink because of severe pain and infection in the mouth. An Ayurvedic mouth wash developed from the Neem plant was administered to Balakrishnan for three weeks during the...

-The Indian Express India's role in pharmaceutical patent wars has broadened access to healthcare. Recently, there were rumours that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) was getting ready to announce "trade enforcement actions" or sanctions against India over its intellectual property rights regime. The Obama administration has been under pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce and lobby groups, like the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, to take a tough stance...

A nation's prosperity is determined to a large extent by the health care received by its female population. India's maternal mortality is down but we still have miles to go before we come close to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets (Please see the links and graph below). The latest available figures released by the Office of Registrar General (India) provide some interesting trends on maternal health indicators. It...

-SouthAsianMedia.net Stating that India's health sector is in a "dismal condition", Nobel laureate Amartya Sen yesterday said over reliance on private health sector without the availability of basic public health services would lead to exploitation of vulnerable and under-informed patients. "The state of healthcare is dismal," Sen said while addressing the press conference at the 11th Kolkata Group workshop, which was organised by Pratichi (India) trust. "We are not against private healthcare, but...