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Health Care in India - Vision 2020Document Transcript
HEALTH CARE IN INDIA - VISION 2020 ISSUES AND PROSPECTS R. SrinivisanINTRODUCTIONKey linkages in health Health and health care need to be distinguished from each other for no betterreason than that the former is often incorrectly seen as a direct function of the latter.Heath is clearly not the mere absence of disease. Good Health confers on a person orgroups freedom from illness - and the ability to realize ones potential. Health is thereforebest understood as the indispensable basis for defining a persons sense of well being.The health of populations is a distinct key issue in public policy discourse in everymature society often determining the deployment of huge society. They include itscultural understanding of ill health and well-being, extent of socio-economic disparities,reach of health services and quality and costs of care. and current bio-mcdicalunderstanding about health and illness. Health care covers not merely medical care but also all aspects pro preventive caretoo. Nor can it be limited to care rendered by or financed out of public expenditure-within the government sector alone but must include incentives and disincentives for selfcare and care paid for by private citizens to get over ill health. Where, as in India, privateout-of-pocket expenditure dominates the cost financing health care, the effects are boundt be regressive. Heath care at its essential core is widely recognized to be a public good.Its demand and supply cannot therefore, be left to be regulated solely by the invisible hadof the market. Nor can it be established on considerations of utility maximizing conductalone. What makes for a just health care system even as an ideal? Four criteria could besuggested- First universal access, and access to an adequate level, and access withoutexcessive burden. Second fair distribution of financial costs for access and fairdistribution of burden in rationing care and capacity and a constant search forimprovement to a more just system. Third training providers for competence empathyand accountability, pursuit of quality care ad cost effective use of the results of relevantresearch. Last special attention to vulnerable groups such a children, women, disabledand the aged.Forecasting in Health Sector In general predictions about future health - of individuals and populations - can benotoriously uncertain. However all projections of health care in India must in the end reston the overall changes in its political economy - on progress made in poverty mitigation(health care to the poor) in reduction of inequalities (health inequalities affecting
access/quality), in generation of employment /income streams (to facilitate capacity topay and to accept individual responsibility for ones health ). in public information anddevelopment communication (to promote preventive self care and risk reduction byconducive life styles ) and in personal life style changes (often directly resulting fromsocial changes and global influences). Of course it will also depend on progress inreducing mortality and the likely disease load, efficient and fair delivery and financingsystems in private and public sectors and attention to vulnerable sections- familyplanning and nutritional services and womens empowerment and the confirmed interestof me siat-e 10 ensure just health care to the Largest extent possible. To list them is torecall that Indian planning had at its best attempted to capture this synergistic approachwithin a democratic structure. It is another matter that it is now remembered only for itsmixed success.Available health forecasts There is a forecast on the new health challenges likely to emerge in India over tnenext few decades. Murry and Lopez <WorId Bank B 2000> have provided a possiblescenario of the burden of disease (BOD) for India in the year 2020, based on a statisticalmodel calculating the change in DALYS are applied to the population projections for2020 and conversely. The key conclusions must be understood keeping in the mind thetact that the concept of DALYs incorporates not only mortality but disability viewed interms of healthy years of life lost. In this forecast, DALYs are expected to dramaticallydecrease in respect of diarrhoeal diseases and respiratory infections and less dramaticallyfor maternal conditions. TB is expected to plateau by 2000, and HIV infections areexpected to rise significantly up to 2010. Injuries may increase less significantly, theproportion of people above 65 will increase and as a result the burden of non-communicable disease will rise. Finally cardiovascular diseases resulting any from therisk associated with smoking urban stress and improper diet are expected to increasedramatically. Under the same BOD methodology another view is available from a four - stateanalysis done in 1996 <World Bank B 2000> these four states - AP, Kamataka, W.Bengal and Punjab - represent different stages in the Indian health transition. Theanalysis reveals that the poorer and more populated states. West Bengal, will still face alarge incidence of communicable diseases. More prosperous states, such as Punjabfurther along the health transiting will witness sharply increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases especially, in urban areas. The projections highlight that we stilloperating on unreliable or incomplete base data on mortality and causes of death in theabsence of vital registration statistics and know as yet little about how they differbetween social classes and regions or about the dynamic patterns of change at work. Italso highlights the policy dilemma of how to balance between the articulate middle upperclass demand for more access to technologically advanced and subsidized clinicalservices and the more pressing needs of the poor for coverage of basic disease controlinterventions. This conflict over deployment of public resources will only getexacerbated in future. What matters most in such estimates are not societal averages withrespect to health but sound data illumining specifically the health conditions of thedisadvantaged in local areas <Gwatkin A 2000> that long tradition of health sectoranalysis looking at unequal access, income poverty and unjustly distributed resources asthe trigger to meet health needs of the poor. That tradition has been totally replaced bythe currently dominant school of international thought about health which is concerned
primarily with efficiency of systems measured by cost effectiveness criteria.Future of State Provided Health Care Historically the Indian commitment to health development has been guided bytwo principles-with three consequences. The first principle was State responsibility forhealth care and the second (after independence) was free medical care for all (and notmerely to those unable to pay), The first set of consequences was inadequate priority to public health, poorinvestment in safe water and samtati on and to the neglect of the key role of personalhygiene in good health, culminating in the persistence of diseases like Cholera. The second set of consequences pertains to substantially unrealized goals of NHP1983 due to funding difficulties from compression of public expenditures and fromorganizational inadequacies. The ambitious and far reaching NPP - 2000 goals andstrategies have however been formulated on that edifice in the hope that the gaps and theinadequate would be removed by purposeful action. Without being too defensive orcritical about its past failures, the rural health structure should be strengthened andfunded and managed efficiently in all States by 2005. This can trigger many dramaticallychanges over the next twenty years in neglected aspects or rural health and of vulnerablesegments. The third set of consequences appears to be the inability to develop and integrateplural systems of medicine and the failure to assign practical roles to the private sectorand to assign public duties for private professionals. To set right these gaps demanded patient redefinition of the states role keepingthe focus on equity. But during the last decade there has been an abrupt switch to marketbased governance styles and much influential advocacy to reduce the state role in healthin order to enforce overall compression of public expenditure an reduce fiscal deficits.People have therefore been forced to switch between weak and efficient public servicesand expensive private provision or at the limit forego care entirely except in lifethreatening situations, in such cases sliding into indebtedness. Health status of anypopulation is not only the record of mortality and its morbidity profile but also a recordof its resilience based on mutual solidarity and indigenous traditions of self-care - assetsnormally invisible to he planner and the professional. Such resilience can be enrichedwith the State retaining a strategic directional role for the good health of all its citizens inaccordance with the constitutional mandate. Within such a framework alone can theprivate sector be engaged as an additional instrument or a partner for achieving sharedpublic health outcomes. Similarly, in indigenous health systems must be promoted to theextent possible to become another credible delivery mechanism in which people havefaith and away fond for the vat number of less than folly qualified doctore in rural areasto get skills upgraded. Public programs in rural and poor urban areas engagingindigenous practitioners and community volunteers can prevent much seasonal andcommunicable disease using low cost traditional knowledge and based on the balancebetween food, exercise medicine and moderate living. Such an overall vision of thepublic role of the heterogenous private sector must inform the course of future of stateled health care in the country.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN HEALTH Our overall achievement in regard to longevity and other key health indicators areimpressive but in many respects uneven across States, The two Data Annexure at the endindicate selected health demographic and economic indicators and highlight the changesbetween 1951and 2001. In the past five decades life expectancy has increased from 50years to over 64 in 2000. IMR has come down from 1476 to 7. Crude birth rates havedropped to 26.1 and death rates to 8.7.At this stage, a process understanding of longevity and child health may be useful forunderstanding progress in future. Longevity, always a key national goal, is not merelythe reduction of deaths as a result of better medical and rehabilitative care at old age. Infact without reasonable quality of life in the extended years marked by self-confidenceand absence of undue dependency longevity may men only a display of technical skills.So quality of life requires as much external bio-medical interventions as culture basedacceptance of inevitable decline in faculties without officious start at sixty but run acrosslife lived at alt ages in reduction of mortality among infants through immunization andnutrition interventions and reduction of mortality among young and middle aged adults,including adolescents getting inform about sexuality reproduction and safe motherhood.At the same time, some segments will remain always more vulnerable - such as womendue to patriarchy and traditions of infra-family denial), aged (whose survival but notalways development will increase with immunization) and the disabled (constituting atenth of the population).Reduction in child mortality involves as much attention to protecting children frominfection as in ensuring nutrition and calls for a holistic view of mother and child healthservices. The cluster of services consisting of antenatal services, delivery care and postmortem attention and low birth weight, childhood diarrhoea and ARI management arelinked priorities. Programme of immunization and childhood nutrition seen in betterperforming stats indicate sustained attention to routine and complex investments intogrowing children as a group to make them grow into persons capable of living long andwell Often interest fades in pursuing the unglamorous routine of supervisedimmunization and is substituted by pulse campaigns etc. Which in the long run turn outcounter-productive. Indeed persistence with improved routines and care for quality inimmunization would also be a path way to reduce the worlds highest rate of maternalmortality.In this context we may refer to the large ratio-based rural health infrastructure consistingof over 5 lakh trained doctors working under plural systems of medicine and a vastfrontline force of over 7 lakh ANMs, MPWS and Anganwadi workers besidescommunity volunteers. The creation of such public work force should be seen as a majorachievement in a country short of resources and struggling with great disparities in healthstatus. As part of rural Primary health care network lone, a total of 1.6 lakh subcenters,(with 1.27 lakh. ANMa in position) and 22975 PHCs and 2935 CHCs (with over 24000doctors and over 3500 specialists to serve in them) have been set up. To promote Indiansystems of medicine and homeopathy there are over 22000 dispensaries 2800 hospitalsBesides 6 lakh angawadis serve nutrition needs of nearly 20 million children and 4million mothers. The total effort has cost the bulk of the health development outlay,which stood at over Rs 62.500/- crores or 3-64 % of total plan spending during the lastfifty years.
On any count these are extraordinary infrastructural capacities created with resourcescommitted against odds to strengthen grass roots. There have been facility gaps, supplygaps and staffing gaps, which can be filled up only by allocating about 20% more fundsand determined ill to ensure good administration and synergy from greater congruence ofservices, but given the sheer size of the endeavor thee wilt always be some failure ofcommitment and in routine functioning. These get exacerbated by periodic campaignmode and vertical programme, which have only increased compartmentalized vision andover-medicalization of health problems. The initial key mistake arose from the needlessbifurcation of health and family welfare and nutrition functions at all levels instead ofpromoting more holism. As a result of all this the structure has been precluded fromreaching its optimal potential. It has got more firmly established at the periphery/sub-center level and dedicated to RCH services only. At PHC and CHC levels this has furtherbeen compounded by a weak referral system. There has not been enough convergence in"escorting" children through immunization coverage and nutrition education of mothersand ensuring better food to children, including cooked midday meals and health checksal schools. There has also been no constructive engagement between allopathic andindigenous systems to build synergies, which could have improved peoples perceptionsof benefits from the infrastructure in ways that made sense to them. One key task in the coming decades is therefore to utilize fully that createdpotential by attending to well known organizational motivational and financial gaps. Thegaps have arisen partly from the source and scale of funds and partly due to lack ofpersistence, both of which can be set right. PHCs and CHCs are funded by States severalof whom are unable to match Central assistance offered and hence these centers remaininadequate and operate on minimum efficiency. On the other hand over two thirds cost ofthree fourths of sub-centers are fully met by the Center due to their key role m familywelfare services. But in equal part these gaps are due to many other non-monetaryfactors such as undue centralization and uniformity, fluctuating commitment to keyroutines at ground level, insufficient experimentation with alternatives such as gettingpublic duties discharged through private professionals and ensuring greater localaccountability to users.Health Status issuesThe difference between rural and urban indiactors of health status and the wide interstatedisparity in health status are well known. Clearly the urban rural differentials aresubstantial and range from childhood and go on increasing the gap as one grows up to 5years. Sheer survival apart there is also the we known under provision in rural areas inpractically all social sector services. For the children growing up in rural areas thedisparities naturally tend to get even worse when compounded by the widely practiceddiscrimination against women, starting with foeticide of daughters.In spite of overall achievement it is a mixed record of social development speciallyfailing in involving people in imaginative ways. Even the averaged out goodperformance ides wide variations by social class or gender or region or State. The classesin may States have had to suffer the most due to lack of access or denial of access orsocial exclusion or all of them. This is clear from the fact that compared to the richesquintile, the poorest had 2.5 times more IMR and child mortality, TFR at double the ratesand nearly 75% malnutrition - particularly during the nineties.
Not only are the gaps between the better performing and other States wide but in samecases have been increasing during the nineties. Large differences also exist betweendistricts within the same better performing State urban areas appear to have better healthoutcomes than rural areas although the figures may not fully reflect the situation in urbanand peri-urban slums with large in migration with conditions comparable to ruralpockets. It is estimated that urban slum population wilt grow at double the rate of urbanpopulation growth in the next few decades. India may have by 202 a total urbanpopulation of close to 600 million living in urban areas with an estimated 145 millionliving in slums in 2001. What should be a fair measure for assessing success inenhancing health status of population I any forecast on health care?Disease Load in India and China:We need a basis for comparative scenario building. Among the nations of the worldChina alone rank in size and scale and in complexity comparable to India differencesbetween an open and free society and a semi-controlled polity do matter. The remarkablesuccess in China in combating disease is due to sustained attention on the health of theyoung in China, and of public policy backed by resources and social mobilization- Whilecomparing China and India in selected aspects of disease load, demography and publicexpenditures on health, the record on India may seem mixed compared to the more allround progress made by china. But this should also be seen in the perspective of thelarger burden of disease in India compared to china and of the transactional costs of anopen and free democracy,Though India and China recorded the same rate of growth till 70s, China initiatedreforms a full decade earlier. This gave it a head stat for a higher growth rate and hasresulted in an economic gap with India which has become wider over time. This isbecause domestic savings in China are 36% of GDP whereas in India it hovers at 23%,mostly in house-hold savings. Again. China attracted $40 billion in foreign directinvestment against $2 billion in India. Special economic zones and relaxed labour lawshave helped. Public expenditure on health in China has been consistently higherunderlining the regressive nature of financing of health are in India. Nevertheless- it isnot too unrealistic to expect that India should be able to reach by 2010 at least threefourth the current level of performance of China in all key health indices. Indias currentpopulation is not a bit more than 75% that of China and India will of course be catchingup even more with China into the 21 century. This would be offset by the handicap thatIndian progress will be moderated by the fact that it is an open free and democraticsociety. A practical rule-of-thumb measure for an optimistic forecast of future progressin India could be - that between 2000 and 2010 India should do three fourths as well asChina did in 1990-2000 and, after 2010, India should try to catch up with the rate ofperformance of China and do just as well thereafter. This will translate into, for, instance,a growth rate of about 8% for India till 2010 and as close to 10% as possible thereafterthus enabling doubling first in ten yeas and doubling first in ten year and doubling twiceover every seven years thereafter prior to 2025. keeping this perspective in mind, wemay now examine the profile of major disease control effort; the effectiveness ofavailable instruments for delivery and financing public health action and assess factorsrelevant to the remaining event of vulnerability within JOUT emerging social pyramidover next two or three decades,
MAJOR DISEASE CONTROL EFFORTS A careful analysis of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study focusing on age-specific morbidity during 2000in ten most common diseases (excluding injuries) showsthat sixty percent of morbidity is due to infectious diseases and common tropicaldiseases, a quarter due to life-style disorders and 13% due to potentially preventable per-natal conditions. Further domestic R&D has been so far muted in its efforts against anestimated annual aggregate health expenditure in India ofRs- 80,000/-crores R&Dexpenditure in India for public and private sector combined was Rs 1150 crores only.India must play a larger part in its own efforts at indigenous R&D as very little world-wide expenditure on R&D is likely to be devoted to infectious diseases. For instance outof the 1233 new drugs that came into the market between 1975 and 1997 only 11 wereindicated specifically for tropical country diseases, We have already the distinction of elimination or control acceptable to publichealth standards of small pox and guinea worm diseases. In the draft National HealthPolicy -21 It has now been proposed to eliminate or control the following diseases withinlimits acceptable to public health practice- A good deal of the effort would be feasible. • Polio Yaws and leprosy by 2005 which seems distinctly feasible though the removal of social stigma and reconstructive surgery and other rehabilitation arrangements in regard to leprosy would remain inadequate for a decade or more. • Kalaazar by 20I0 and Filalriasis by 2010 which also seems feasible due to its localized prevalence and the possibility of greater community based work involving PR institutions in the simple but time-limited tasks or public health programs- • Blindness prevalence to 0.5% by 2010 sees less feasible due to a graying population. At present the programme is massively supported by foreign aid as there are many other legitimate demands on domestic health budgets- • AIDS reaching zero growth by 2007 appears to be problematic as there are disputes even about base data on infected population. On most reckonings, affordable vaccines re not likely to be available soon nor anti-retro viral drugs appear likely at affordable prices in the near future. Further the prevalence curve of Aids in India is yet to show its shape. There is also larger unresolved question of where HIV/ATDS should be fitted in our priorities of public health, especially in this massively foreign aided programme what happen if aid does not become available at some point.Unfinished burden of communicable diseases Apart from the above, there remains a vast unfinished burden in preventingcontrolling or eliminating other major communicable diseases and in bringing down therisk of deaths in maternal and peri-natal conditions. Endemic diseases arising frominfection or lack of nutrition continue to account for almost two thirds of morality admorbidity India. Indeed eleven out of thirteen diseases recommended by the BhoreCommittee were infectious diseases and at least three of them may well continue to bewith us for the next two decades Baring Leprosy which is almost on the path to totalcontrol by 2005, the other key communicable diseases will be TB Malaria and Aids- to
which diarrhoea in children and complicated and high risk maternity should be added inview of their pervasive incidence and avoidable mortality among the poorer and underserved sectors,Tuberculosis:Tuberculosis has had a world wide resurgence including in India. It is estimated lhaiabout 14 million persons are infected, i.e. 1.55 of total population suffer from radiologically active Tuberculosis. About 1.5 million cases are identified and more than 300000 deaths occur every year Between NFHS 1 and NFHS 2 the prevalence has increasedfrom 4678 per lakh population to 544. Unfortunately, prevalence among working ageadults (15-59) is even higher as 675. All these may well be underestimates in so far aspatients are traced only through hospital visit. Only about half reach the hospital. Oftenwrong diagnosis by insufficiently trained doctors or misunderstood protocols is anotherkey problem both public and private sectors. TB is a wide spread disease of povertyamong women living and working in ill ventilated places and other undernourishedpersons in urban slums it is increasingly affecting the younger adults also in theeconomically productive segments. No universal screening is possible. Sputum positivetest does not precede diagnosis but drugs are prescribed on the basis of fever andshadows as a result incomplete cure becomes common and delayed tests only prove thewrong diagnosis too late. Improved diagnosis through better training and clear protocolsand elimination of drug resistance through incomplete cure should be priority. Treatmentcosts in case of drug resistance can soar close to ten times the normal level of Rs. 3000 to4000/-per person treated. Similarly even though the resistant strain may cover only 8% atpresent, it could suddenly rise and as it approaches 200/o or so, there is a danger that TBmay get out of control. The DOTS programme trying for full compliance after properdiagnosis is settling down but already has some claims of success. More tan 3000laboratories have been set up for diagnosis and about 1.5 lakh workers trained and withtotal population coverage by 2007 cure rates (already claimed to have doubled) may risesubstantially. There is reason to hope that DOTS programs would prove a greater successover time with increased community awareness aeneration. The key issue is how soonand how well can it be integrated into the PHC system and made subject to routines oflocal accountability, without which no low cost regime of total compliance is feasible ina country as large as India. An optimistic assessment could be that with commitment and full use ofinfrastructure it will be possible to arrest further growth in absolute numbers of TB caseskeeping it at below 1.5 million till 2010 even though the population will e growing. Oncethat is done TB can be brought down to less than a million lie within internationallyaccepted limits and disappears as a major communicable disease in India by 2020.Malaria:As regards malaria, we have had a long record of success and failure and eachintervention has been thwarted by new problems and plagued by recrudescence. Atpresent India has a large manpower fully aware of all aspects of malaria about often lowin motivation. It can be transformed into a large-scale work force for awarenessgeneration, tests and distribution of medicine. In spite of past successes, there is evidenceof reemergence with focal attacks of malaria with the virulent falciparum varietyespecially m tribal areas. Priority tnbal area malaria stands fully funded by the center.
About 2 millioncases of malaria are recorded allover India every year with seasonal highincidence local failures of control. Drug resistance in humans and insecticide resistantstrains of mosquitoes present a significant problem. But there is a window of opportunityI respect ofDDT sensitive areas in eastern India where even now malaria incidence canbe brought down by about 50% within a decade and be beneficial for control of kalazaarand JE. There is growing interest and community awareness of biological methods ofcontrol of mosquito growth. Unfortunately diligent ground level public health work is ingrave disarray n these areas but can be improved by better supervision greater use ofpanchayatraj institutions and buildings on modest demonstrated successes. As regards avaccine, there seems t be no sufficient incentive for international R&D to focus on arelatively lower priority or research. Roll back malaria programmes of the WHO aremore likely to concentrate on Africa whose profile of malaria is not similar to ours. Thesearch for a vaccine continues but has little likelihood of immediate success.In spite of various difficulties, if the restructuring of the malaria work force and thestrengthening of health infrastructure takes place, one can expect that the incidence canbe i educe by a third or even upto half in the next decade or so. For this it is necessarythat routine tasks like timely spraying and logistics for taking blood slides testing andtheir analysis and organic methods of reducing mosquito spread etc. Are down staged tocommunity level and penormed under supervision throLigh panchayais wiihcomaiLiniLy participation public education and local monitoring. Malaria can certainlybe reduced by a third even upto a half in ten years, and there is a prospect of nearfreedom from malaria for most of the country by 2020.The case of AIDS:There is finally the case of HIV AID. The magnitude in the numbers of HIV infected andof AIDS patients by 2025 can be known only as trends emerge over a decade from now.when better epidemiological estimates are available but at present these figures are hotlycontested. We cant start with the number infected with HIV as per NACO sentinelsurveillance in 2000 a cumulative total 3.86 million, a figure disputed in recent publichealth debate. We can then assume that about 10% will turn into full-blow cases ofsevere and intractable stage of Aids. There is as yet no basis to know how many of thoseinfected will become AIDS patients, preventive efforts focused on behavior change willshow up firmly only after a decade or so. During this period one can assume anadditional 10% growth to account for new cases every year. The Draft NHP 2001 seeksto stop further infection by educating and counseling and condom supplies to level it offaround 2007, which seems somewhat ambitious. We have yet to make a decisive dentinto the problem of awareness with the broader population and so far we have been atwork only on high risk groups. NFHS2 shows only a third of woman reporting that theyeven knew about the HIV/AIDS. Further such awareness efforts must be followed bymulti-pronged and culturally compatible techniques of public education that go beyondsegments easier to be convinced or behaviour changed. There are voices already raisedabout the appropr lateness of IEC mass media content and of the under emphasis of faceto face counseling, calling for innovative mobilization strategies rooted in indigenousbelief systems.What it implies is that we may be carrying by 2015closeto 5 million infected and upto a
tenth of them could turn into full blown cases. We may not be able to level off infectionby 2007 Further these magnitudes may turn out m actual fact to be wildly off the mark.On any account it is clear that AIDS can lead to high mortality among the productivegroups in society affecting economic functioning as also public health. Even if 10% ofthem say 50 to 60000 cases becomes full blown cases the state has the onerous and grimchoice to look at competing equities and decide on a policy for free treatment of AIDSpatients with expensive anti-retro viral drugs. And if it decides not to, the issue remainsas to how to evolve humane balanced and affordable policies that do not lead to a socialbreakdown. In about a decade vaccine development may possibly be successful anddrugs may by more effective but they may not always be affordable nor can be givenfree.There would hopefully be wider consultation with persons with caring sensibilitiesincluding AIDS patients on how to counsel in different eventualities and to get thebalance right between hospital and home care and how to develop a humane affordablepolicy for anti retroviral drugs for AIDS patients. Is there a case for providing them withdrug free of cost merely to extend their lives for few years? The matter involves a truedilemma, for public health priorities themselves certainly argue for more funds shouldaddress diseases constituting bigger population based hazards. Investments made m suchexpensive interventions can instead be made in supporting hospice efforts in thevoluntary and private sectors.Whatever position may emerge in research or spread of infection of case fatalities, amulti pronged attempt for awareness, must continue and tough choices must getdiscussed openly without articulate special, often urban middle class interests denyingother views and especially public health priorities of the poor. The promotion of barrierprotection must increase but has to related to a system of values, which would beacceptable to the people’s beliefs. We need to strengthen sentinel surveillance systemsand awareness effort. We also need sensitive feed back on the effects they leave onyounger minds for a balanced culturally acceptable strategy. All this is feasible and canbe accomplished if we are not swept away by the power of funding and advocacy andfear of being accused to be out of line with dominant world opinion.In any case many of the ill cannot afford the high prices or have access to it from publicagencies. The strict patent regimen under TRIPS is bound to prevail, notwithstandingthe ambivalently worded Doha decision of WTO that public health emergencies providesufficient cause of countries to use the flexibility available from various provisions ofTRIPS. A recent analysis reveals that the three drug regimen recommended will cost$10000 per person per year from Western companies and the treatment will be lifelong.Three Indian companies are offering to Central Government anti retro; viral drugs at$600/ Rs. 30,000/per person per year and to an international charity at an even lowerprice $ 350/ Rs. 13,000/per year provided it was distributed for humanitarian relief freein S. Africa. It has been public policy in Brazil that the drug is supplied free to all AIDSshould be no exception. If drugs are supplied acting on a public health emergency basisand prices can stabilize at Rs. 1000/- or so per year the public health budget should beable to accommodate the cost weighed against true public criteria. But the aim ofleveling off infection of 2007 still seems unlikely.
Maternal and Parental DeathsMaternal and parental deaths are sizeable but the advantage here is that they can beprevented merely by more intensive utilization of existing rural health infrastructure.Policy and implementation must keep steady focus on key items such as improvedinstitutional deliveries better trained birth attendants and timely antenatal screening toeliminate anaemia and at the same time isolate cases needing referral or other targetedattention. After all Tamil Nadu has by such methods ensured closed to 90% institutionaldeliveries backed by a functional referral. Firm administrative will and concurrentsupervision of specified screening tasks included in MCH services can give us a windowof opportunity to dramatically bring down within a few years alarming maternalmortality currently one of the highest in the world. From NFHS I data, it was estimatedat 424 per lac births it has risen to 540 per lac births in NFHS II, but the WHO estimateputs it higher at 570. There can be a systematic campaign over five years to increaseinstitutional deliveries as near as possible to the Tamil Nadu level, also taking intoaccount assisted, home deliveries by trained staff with doctors at call. For the interimTBAs should be relied on through a mass awareness campaign involving GramPanchayats too. Over a period of time there is no reason why ANMs entitled benefits ofchildren to help in their growth and not remain as welfare measure. Using theinfrastructures fully and with community participation and extensive social mobilizationmany tasks in nutrition are feasible and can be in position to make impact by 2010.Child Health and NutritionAssociated with this is the issue of infant and child mortality, (70 out of 1000 dying inthe first year and 98 before vide years) and low birth weight (22% UW at birth ands 47%EJW at below 3 years) most mortality occurs from diarrhoea and the stagnation in IMRin the last few year is bound to have a negative effect on population stabilization goals. Arecent review of the Ninth plan indicated that even with accelerated efforts we may reachat best IMR/50 by 3002, but more like IMR/56. since the easier part of the problem istaking child mortality is over every pomt gain hereafter will deal with districts at greaterrisk and needing better organizational efficiencies in immunization. At the same time,more streamlined RCH services are getting established as part of public systems andthrough private partnerships Therefore there is every reason to hope that the NPP 2000target of 30 per thousand live births by 2010 will be met barring a few pockets ofinaccessible and resource lean areas with stubborn persistence of poverty and dominantlycomposed of weaker sections (e g in part of Orissa as seen from NFHS II).As regards childhood diarrhoea, deaths are totally preventable simple community actionand public education by targeting children of low birth weights and detecting early thosechildren at risk from malnutrition through proper low cost screening procedure, thepresent arrangement has got too burdened with attempting total population coveragegetting all children weighed even once in three months and making ANMs depots forORS and for simple drugs for fever and motivating the community to take pride inhealthy children are the lessons of the success of the Tamil Nadu Nutrition Project, If thisis done there is a reasonable chance of two thirds decline in moderate malnutrition andabolition of serious grades completely by 2015. The success can be built upon till 2025
for reaching levels comparable to China.Concentration on preventive measures of maternal and child health and in particularimproved nutrition services will be particularly useful because it will help that generationto have a head start in good health who are going to be a part of the demographic bonus.The bonus is a young adult bulge of about 340 million (with not less than 250 millionfrom rural population and about 100 million born in this century). The bonus will appearin a sequence with South Indian States completing the transition before North IndianStates spread it over the next three decades- To ensure best results aL this stage thepresent nutritional services must be converted into targeted (and entitled) benefits ofchildren to help in their growth and not remain as welfare measure. Using theinfrastructures fully and with community participation and extensive social mobilizationmany tasks in nutrition are feasible and can be in position to make impact by 2010.Mild and moderate malnutrition still prevalent in over half of our young populaaon canbe halved if food as the supplemental pathway to better nutrition becomes a priority bothfor self reliance and lower costs. There has been a tendency for micro nutrientsupplementation to overwhelm food derived nourishment. This trend is assisted byforeign aid but over a long run may prove unsustainable- By engaging the adolescentsinto proper nutrition education and reproductive health awareness we can seamlesslyweave into the nutritional security system of our country a corps of informedinterconnected and imaginative ideas can be tried out. Such social mobilization at lowcost can be the best preventive strategy as has been advocated for long by the NutritionFoundation of India (< Gopalan 2001) and can be a priority in this decade over the nexttwo plan periods.Unfinished agenda - non communicable diseases and injuriesThree major such diseases viz,, cancer cardiovascular diseases and renal conditions - andneglect in regard to mental health conditions - have of late shown worrisome trends.Cures for cancer are still elusive in spite of palliatives and expensive and long drawnchemo - or radio -therapy which often inflict catastrophic costs, In the case otCVD andrenal conditions known and tried procedures are available for relief. There is evidence ofgreater prevalence of cancer even among young adults due to the stress of modem livmg.In India cancer is a leading cause of death with about 1.5 to 2 million cases at anytime towhich 7 lac new cases are added every year with 3 lakh deaths. Over 15 lakh patientsrequire facilities for diagnosis and treatment. Studies by WHO show that by 2026 withthe expected increase in fife expectancy, cancer burden in India will increase to about 14lac cases. CVD cases and Diabetes cases are also increasing with an 8 to 11 %prevalence of the latter due to fast life styles and lack of exercise. Traumas and accidentsleading to injuries- are offshoots of the same competitive living conditions and urbantraffic conditions Data show one death every minute due to accidents or more than 1800deaths every day- in Delhi alone about 150 cases are reported every day from accidentson the road and for every death 8 living patients are added to hospitals due to injuries.There is finally the emerging aftermath of insurgencies and militant violence leading tomental illnesses of various types. It is estimated that 10 to 20 persons out of 1000population suffer from severe mental illness and 3 to 5 times more have emotionaldisorder. While there are some facilities for diagnosis and treatment exist in major citiesthere is no access whatever in rural areas. It is acknowledged that the only way ofhandling mental health problems is through including it into the primary health care
arrangements implying trained screening and counseling at primary levels for earlydetection.All these are eminently feasible preventive steps and can be put into practice bv 2005and we should be doing as well or better than China by 2020 considering the greater loadof non communicable diseases they bear now. The burden of non-communicable diseaseswill be met more and more by private sector specialized hospitals which spring up inurban centers. Facilities in prestigious public centers will also be under strain and theyshould be redesigned to take advantage of community based approach of awareness,early detection and referral system as in the mode) developed successfully in theRegional Cancer Center Keraia. Public sector institutions are also needed to provide acomparator basis for costs and evaluating technology benefits. For the less affluentsections prolonged high tech cure will be unaffordable. Therefore public funds should goto promote a routine of proper screening health education and self care and timelyinvestigations to see that interventions are started in stages I and II.HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE PUBLIC SECTORIssues in regard to public and private health infrastructure are different and both of themneed attention but in different ways. Rural public infrastructure must remain in mainstayfor wider access to health care for all without imposing undue burden on them. Side byside the existing set of public hospitals at district and sub-district levels must besupported by good management and with adequate funding and user fees and outcontracting services, all as part of a functioning referral net work. This demands betterroutines more accountable staff and attention to promote quality. Many reputed publichospitals have suffered from lack of autonomy inadequate budgets for non-wage O&Mleading to faltering and poorly motivated care. All these are being tackled in severalstates are part health sector reform, and will reduce the waste involved in simpler casesneedlessly reaching tertiary hospitals direct These, attempts must persist without anywavering or policy changes or periodic denigration of their past working. Moreautonomy to large hospitals and district public health authorities will enable them to planand implement decentralized and flexible and locally controlled services and remove thedichotomy between hospital and primary care services. Further. most preventive servicescan be delivered by down staging to a public health nurse much of what a doctor alonedoes now. Such long term commitment for demystification of medicme and downstaging of professional help has been lost among the politicians bureaucracy andtechnocracy after the decline of the PHC movement. One consequence is the hugeregional disparities between states which are getting stagnated in the transition atdifferent stages and sometimes, polarized in the transition. Some feasible steps inrevitalizing existing infrastructure are examined below drawn from successfulexperiences and therefore feasible elsewhere,Feasible Steps for better performance:The adoption of a ratio based approach tor creating facilities and other mpuls has led LOshortfalls estimated upto twenty percent. It functions well where ever there is diligentattention to supervised administrative routines such as orderly drugs procurementadequate O&M budgets and supplies and credible procedures for redressal of complaints.
Current PHC CHC budgets may have to be increased by 10% per year for five years todraw level. The proposal in the Draft NHP 2001 is timely that State health expendituresbe raised to 7% by 2015 and to 8% of State budgets thereafter. Indeed the target could bestepped up progressively to 10% by 2025. it also suggests that Central funding shouldconstitute 25% of total public expenditure in health against the present 15%. Theperipheral level at the sub center has not been (and may not now ever be) integrated withthe rest of the health system having become dedicated solely to reproduction goals. Theimmediate task would be to look deepening the range of work done at all levels ofexisting centers and in particular strengthen the referral links and fuller and flexibleutilization ofPHC/CHCs. Tamil Nadu is an instance where a review showed that out of1400 PHCs 94% functioned in their own buildings and had electricity, 98% of ANMsand 95% of pharmacists were in position. On an average every PHC treated about 100patients 224 out of the 250 open 24 hour PHCs had ambulances. What this illustrates isthat every State must look for imaginative uses to which existing structures can be put tofuller use such as making 24 hours services open or trauma facilities in PHCs onhighway locations etc.The persistent under funding of recurring costs had led to the collapse of primary care inmany states, some spectacular failures occurring in malaria and kalazar control. This hasto do with adequacy of devolution of resources and with lack of administrative willprobity and competence in ensuring that determined priorities in public health tasks androutines are carried out timely and in full. Only genuine devolution or simpler tasks andresources to panchayats, where there will be a third women members- can be the answeras seen in Kerala or M.P. where panchayats are made into fully competent localgovernments with assigned resources and control over institutions in health care. Manyinnovative cost containment initiatives are also possible through focused management -as for instance in the streamlining of drug purchase stocking distribution arrangements inTamil Nadu leading to 30% more value with same budgets.The PHC approach as implemented seems to have strayed away from its key thrust inpreventive and public health action. No system exists for purposeful community focusedpublic information or seasonal alerts or advisories or community health information to becirculated among doctors in both private practice and in public sector. PHCs were meantto be local epidemiological information centers which could develop simple community.Tertiary hospitals had been given concessional land, customs exemption and liberal taxbreaks against a commitment to reserve beds for poor patients for free treatments. Noprocedures exist to monitor this and the disclosure systems are far from transparent,redressal of patient grievances is poor and allegations of cuts and commissions topromote needless procedure are common.The bulk of noncorporate private entities such as nursing homes are run by doctors anddoctors- entrepreneurs and remain unregulated cither in terms of facility of competencestandards or quality and accountability of practice and sometimes operate withoutsystematic medical records and audits. Medical education has become more expensiveand with rapid technological advances in medicine, specialization has more attractiverewards. Indeed the reward expectations of private practice formerly spread out overcareer long earnings are squeezed into a few years, which becomes possible only byworking in hi tech hospital some times run as businesses. The responsibilities or private
sector in clinical and preventive public health services were not specified though underthe NHP 1983 nor during the last decade of reforms followed up either by government ofprofession by any strategy to engage allocate, monitor and regulate such privateprovision nor assess the costs and benefits or subsidization of private hospitals. There hasbeen talk of public private partnerships, but this has yet to take concrete shape byimposing pubic duties on private professionals, wherever there is agreement on explicitlypublic health outcomes. In fact it has required the Supreme Court to lay down theprofessional obligations of private doctors in accidents and injuries who used to berefused treatment in case of potential becoming part of a criminal offence.The respective roles of the public and private sectors in health care has been a key issuein debate over a long time. With the overall swing to the Right after the 1980s, it isbroadly accepted that private provision of care should take care of the needs of all but thepoor. hi doing so, risk pooling arrangements should be made to lighten the financialburden on theirs who pay for health care. As regards the poor with priced services.Taking into account the size of the burden, the clinical and public health services cannotbe shouldered for all by government alone. To a large extent this health sector reform mIndia at the state level confirms this trend. The distribution of the burden, between thetwo sectors would depend on the shape and size of the social pyramid in each society.There is no objection to introduce user fees, contractual arrangements, risk pooling, etc.for mobilization of resources for health care. But, the line should be drawn not so muchbetween public and private roles, but between institutions and health care run asbusinesses or run in a wider public interest as a social enterprise with an economicdimensions. In a market economy, health care is subject to three links, none of whichshould become out of balance with the other - the link between state and citizensentitlement for health, the link between the consumer and provider of health services andthe link between the physician and patient.HEALTH FINANCING ISSUESPublic expenditure levelsFair financing of the costs of health care is an issue in equity and it has two aspects howmuch is spent by Government on publicly funded health care and on what aspects? Andsecondly how huge does the burden of treatment fall on the poor seeking health care?Health spending in India at 6% of GDP is among the highest levels estimated fordeveloping countries. In per capita terms it is higher than in China Indonesia and mostAfrican countries but lower than in Thailand. Even on PPP $ terms India has been arelatively high spender information sheets based on reporting from a network associatingprivate doctors also as has been done successfully at CMC Vellore in their rural healthprojects or by the Khoj projects of the Voluntary Health Association of India. It is onlythrough such community based approach that revitalization of indigenous medicines canbe done and people trained in self care and accept responsibility for their own health.PHC approach was also intended to test the extent to which non-doctor based healthcarewas feasible through effective down staging of the delivery of simpler aspects of a careas is done in several countries through nurse practitioners and physician assistants,ANMs; physician assistants etc can each get trained and recognized to work in allottedareas under referral/supervision of doctors. This may indeed be more acceptable to themedical profession than the draft NHP proposal to restart licentiates in medicine as in the
thirties and give them shorter periods of training to serve rural areas. Such a licentiatesystem cannot now be recalled against the professions opposition nor would peopleaccept two level services.Finally it is important 10 noie some dangers inherem m arrangemenis itiai promotedelivery systems substantially outside government channel either through NGOs orthrough registered societies at State and district levels. Clearly this may by a betterapproach than leaving it to the market and welcome as path breaking of innovativeefforts as a precursor to launching a public program. But as a long run deliverymechanism it is neither practical nor sustainable as such arrangements tend to bypassgovernment under our constitutional scheme of parliamentary responsibility and wouldalso cut into the potential of panchayatraj institutions. Each major disease controlprogram has now got a separate society at state and district levels often as part of accessto foreign aid. What is lost is the principle of parliamentary accountability over the flowof funds that arise out of voted budgets and international agreements to whichGovernment is a party and answerable to parliament. Like campaign modes and verticalinterventions, the registered society approach would weaken the long-term commitmentand integrity of public health care systems.SHAPE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN MEDICINEThe key features of the private sector in medical practice and health care are well known.Two questions are relevant. What role should be assigned to it? How far and how closelyshould it be regulated? Over the last several decades, independent private medicalpractice has become widespread but has remained stubbornly urban with polyclinics,nursing homes and hospitals proliferating often through doctor entrepreneurs. At ourlevel tertiary hospitals in major cities are in may cases run by business houses and usecorporate business strategies and hi-tech specialization to create demand and attract thosewith effective demand or the critically vulnerable at increasing costs. Standards in someof them are truly world class and some who work there are outstanding leaders in theirareas. But given the commodification of medical care as part of a business plan it has notbeen possible to regulate the quality, accountability and fairness in care through criteriafor accreditation, transparency in fees, medical audit, accountable record keeping,credible grievance procedures etc. such accreditation, standard setting and licensuresystems are best done under self regulation, but self regulation systems in India medicalpractice have been deficient in many respects creating problem in credibility. Acute carehas become the key priority and continues to attract manpower and investment intorelated specialty education and facilities for technological improvement. Commontreatments, inexpensive diagnostic procedures and family medicine are replaced andpriced out of the reach of most citizens in urban areas.Public health spending accounts for 25% of aggregate expenditure the balance being outof pocket expenditure incurred by patients to private practitioners of various hues. Publicspending on health in India has itself declined after liberalization from 1.3% of GDP in1990 to 0.9% in 1999. Central budget allocations for health have stagnated at 1.3% tototal Central budget. In the States it has declined from 7.0% to 5.5.% of State healthbudget. Consider the contrast with the Bhore Committee recommendation of 15%committed to health from the revenue expenditure budget, Indeed WHO hadrecommended 55 of GDP for health. The current annual per capita public healthexpenditure is no more than Rs. 160 and a recent World Bank review showed that over
all primary health services account for 58% of public expenditure mostly but on salaries,and the secondary/tertiary sector for about 38%, perhaps the greater part going to tertiarysector, including government funded medical education. Out of the total primary carespending, as much as 85% was spent on or curative services and only 15% for preventiveservice. <World Bank 1995> about 47% of total Central and State budget is spent oncurative care and health facilities. This may seem excessive at first sight but in face thefigure is over 60% in comparable countries, with the bulk of the expenditure devotedpublicly funded care or on mandated or voluntary risk pooling methods, in India close to75% of all household expenditure on health is spend from private funds and theconsequent regressive effects on the poor is not surprising. In this connection. Eheproposals in the draft NHP 2000 are welcome seeking to restore the key balance towardsprimary care, and bring it to internationally accepted proportions in the course of thisdecade.Private expenditure trendsMany surveys confirm that when services are provided by private sector it is largely forambulatory care and less for inpatient carte. There are variations in levels of cost,pricing, transactional conveniences and quality of services. There is evidence to suggestthat disparities in income as such do not make a difference in meeting health care costs,except for catastrophic or life threatening situations Finally it has been established thatbetween 2/3rds to 3/4ths of all medical expenditure is spend on privately provided careevery household on the average spends up to 10% of annual household consumption inmeeting health care needs. This regressive burden shows up vividly in the cycle ofincomplete cure followed by recurrence of illness and drug resistance that the poor facein diseases like TB or Kalazar or Malaria especially for daily wage earners who cannotafford to be out of work.Privatization has to be distinguished from private medical practice which has alwaysbeen substantial within our mixed economy. What is critical however is the rapidcommercialization of private medical practice in particular uneven quality of care. Thereare complex reasons for this trend. First is the high scarcity cost of good medicaleducation, and second the reward differential between public and corporate tertiaryhospitals leading to the reluctance of the young professional to be lured away from themarket to public service in rural areas and finally there is the compulsion of returns oninvestment whenever expensive equipment in installed as part of practice. Increasingly,this has shifted the balance from individual practice to institutionalizes practice, inhospitals, polyclinics,- Etc. this conjunction explodes into unbearable cost escalationwhen backed by a third party payer system/- This in turn induces increases in insurancepremiums making such cover beyond the capacity to pay. There is a distinct possibilityof such cycles of cost escalation periodically occurring in the future, promoted further byglobal transfer of knowledge and software, tele-medicine etc. especially after the adventof predictive medicine and gene manipulation.Doctors practicing in the private sector are sometimes accused of prescribing excessive,expensive and nsky medicines and with using rampant and less than justified use oftechnology for diagnosis and treatment. Some method of accreditation of hospitals andfacilities and better licensure systems of doctors is likely within a decade. This willenables some moderation in levels of charges in using new technology. High cost of careis sometimes sought to be justified as necessary due to defensive medicine practiced in
order to meet risks under the Consumer Protection Act. There is little evidence fromdecisions of Consumer Courts to justify such fears. While the line between mistakendiagnosis and negligent behaviour will always remain thin, case law has already begun tosettle around the doctors ability to apply reasonable skills and not the highest degree ofskill. What has lieen established is the right of the patient to question the treatment andprocedures if there is failure to treat according to standard medical practice or if less thanadequate care was taken. As health insurance gets established it may impost morestringent criteria and restrictions on physician performance which may tempt them intodefensive medicine. There may also be attempt to collusive capture and (indirectownership) of insurance companies by corporate hospitals as in other countries.Advances in medical technology are rapid and dominant and easily travel world wideand often seen as good investment and brand equity in the private sector. Privateindependent practices - and to smaller extent hospitals, dispensaries, nursing homes tele-are seen as markets for medical services with each segment seeking to maximize gainsand build mutually supporting links with other segments. More than one study on thequality of care indicates that sometimes more services are performed to maximizerevenue, and services/ medicines are prescribed which ffl-e not always necessary.Allegations are also widely made of collusive deals between doctors and hospitals withcommissions and cuts exchanged to promote needless referral, drugs or procedures<World Bank A 1995> Appropriate regulation is likely in the next decade for minimumstandards and accountability and that should consist of a balanced mix of self regulationexternal regulation by standard setting and accreditation agencies including privatevoluntary health insurance.How far can health insurance help?What constitutes a fair distribution of the costs of care among different social groups willalways be a normative decision emerging out of political debate. It includes risk poolinginitiatives for sharing costs among the healthy and the sick leading to insurance schemesas a substitute for or as supplementary to State provision for minimum uniform services.It also covers risk sharing initiatives across wealth and income involving public policydecisions on progressive taxation, merit subsidy and cross subsidization by dual pricing.Both will continue to be necessary in our conditions with more emphasis on risk sharingas growth picks up. Risk pooling within private voluntary and mandated insuranceschemes has become inevitable in all countries because of the double burden of sicknessand to ensure that financial costs of treatment do not become an excessive burdenrelative to incomes. It is difficult but necessary to embed these notions of fair financinginto legislation, regulations and schemes and programs equity is aimed at in health care.With the recent opening up of the general Insurance sector to foreign companies, there isthe prospect of two trends. New insurance product will be putout so expand businessmore be deepening than widening risk covered. The second trend would be toconcentrate on urban middle and upper classes and settled iobholders with capacity topay and with a perceived interest in good health of the family. Both trends make soundbusiness sense in a vast growth market and would increase extensive hospital use andprotection against huge hospitalization expenses, and promoted by urban privatehospitals since their clientele will increase.Insurance is a welcome necessary step and must doubtless expand to help in facilitating
equitable health care to shift to sections for which government is responsible. Indeed forthose not able to access insurance it is government that will have to continue to providethe minimum services, and intervene against market failures including denial throughadverse selection or moral hazard. Indeed in the long run the degree of inequity in healthcare after insurance systems are set up will depend ironically on the strength and deliveryof the public system as a counterpoise in holding costs and relevance in technology.The insurable population in India has been assessed at 250 million and at an average ofRs 1000/- per person the premium amount per year would be Rs 25,000/- crores and isexpected to treble in ten years- While the insurance product will dutifully reflect thedemands of this colossal market and related technological developments in medicine, itshould be required to extend beyond hospitalization and cover domiciliary treatment tooin a big way; for instance, extending cover to ambulatory maternal and selected chronicconditions like Asthma more prevalent among the poor. The insurance regulatoryauthority has announced priority in licensing to companies set up with health insuranceas key business and has emphasized the need for developing new products on fair termsto those at risk among the poor and in rural areas. Much will turn on what progresstakes place through sound regulation covering aspects indicated below. In order to besocially relevant and cominercially viable the scheme must aim at a proper mix of healthhazards and cover many broad social classes and income groups. This is possible in poorlocations or communities only if a group view is taken and on chat basis a population-based nsk is assessed and community rated premiums determined covering families forall common illnesses and based on epidemiological determined risk. In order thatexclusions co-payments deductibles etc. remain minimum and relevant to our socialsituation, some well judged government merit subsidy can be incorporated into antipoverty family welfare or primary education or welfare pension schemes meant for oldage. Innovative community based new products can be developed by using the scatteredexperience of such products for instance in SEWA, so that a minimum core cover can bedeveloped as a model for innovative insurance by panchayats with reinsurance backup bycompanies and government bearing part of promotional costs. The bulk of the formalsector maybe covered by an expanded mandatory insurance with affordable cover andconvenient modes of premium payment. Outside the formal manufacturing sectorinnovate schemes can be designed around specific occupation groups in the informalsector which are steadily becoming a base for old age pension entitlements, as in Keralaand Tamil Nadu - and brought under common risk rating. Finally, as in the West healthinsurance should develop influence and capacity as bulk purchaser or medical andhospital services to impact on quality and cost and provide greater understanding aboutIndian health and illness behaviours, patterns of utilization of care and intra familypriorities for accessing medical care. Health insurance should be welcomed as a force fora fairer healthcare system. But its success should be judged on how well new productsare developed with a cover beyond hospitalization, how fairly and inclusively the coveris offered and how far community rated premiums are established. The IRDA has animmense responsibility and with its leadership one can optimistically expect about 30%coverage by 2015 relieving the burden on the public systems.HEALTH PERCEPTIONS AND PLURAL SYSTEMS:Health perceptions play an important part in ensuring sound health outcomes. To a large
extent they are culturally determined but also subject to change with economic growthand social development. People intuitively develop capacity to make choices tor beingtreated under the western of indigenous systems of medicines, keep a balance betweengood habits traditionally developed for healthy living and modem lifestyles, decide onwhere to go for chrome and acute care and how to apportion intra-family utilizationofhealthcare resources. The professional is generally bound by his discipline and itsinherent logic of causation and effect and tends to discount even what work as successfulpractice, I fit does not fall within the accepted understanding of his profession. Somemovement is occurring among eminent allopathic doctors trying, for instance, to reworkAyurveda theory in a modem idiom starting from respectful reverse analysis for actualsuccessful contemporary practice of Ayurveda and provide a theoretical frame linking itto contemporary needs. There is evidence from public health campaigns in Tamil Naduwhere every seventh person spontaneously expressed a preference for Sidda Medicine.Homeopathy for chronic ailment is widely accepted. The herbal base for Ayurvdamedicine widely practiced in the Himalayan belt has down world attention a huge exportmarket remains to be tapped according to the knowledgeable trade sources but the dangerof bio-privacy remains and legal enablements should be put in place soon that wouldfully expand on our rights under the WTO agreements. The draft national policy onISIvIH has attempted to place these plural systems in a modem service delivery andresearch and education context, it has covered its natural resource base, traditionalknowledge base and development of institutions to carry a national heritage forward.There is hope for the survival and growth of the sector only if it becomes an example ofconvergence between peoples and planners perceptions and ensure its relevance,accountability and affordability to contemporary illnesses and conditions. At the sametime it is undeniable that there is much cross practice by ISM practitioners which usuallyinclude prescriptions we western medicine as part of indigenous treatment Appropriateregulation is needed to protect people from fraud and other dangers but the largerquestion is how to make the perceptions of the professionals and planners regardingindigenous system of medicine less ambivalent. The separate department for ISM&Hshould be able to bring about functional integration of ISM and western medicine inservice delivery at PHC levels by 2005 whereby it will usher in an uniquely Indiansystem of care.EMERGING SCENARIOWhat then can we conclude about the prospects of health care in India in 2020? Anoptimistic scenario will be premised on an average 8% rate of economic growth duringthis decade and 10% per annum thereafter- If so, what would be the major fall out interms of results on the health scene? In the first place, longevity estimates can beconsidered along the following lines. China in 2000 had a life- expectancy at birth of 69years (M) and 73(F) whereas India had respectively 60 (M) and 63 (F). Moreimportantly, healthy life expectancy at birth in China was estimated in the World HealthReport 2001 at 61 (M) and 63.3 (F) whereas in Indian figures were 53 (M) and 51.7 (F).If we look at the percentage of life expectancy years lost as a result of the disease burdenand effectiveness of health care systems, Chinese men would have lost 11.6 years againstIndian men losing 12.7 years. The corresponding figures are 13.2 for Chinese womenand 17.5 for Indian women. Clearly, an integrated approach is necessary to deal withavoidable mortality and morbidity and preventive steps in public health are needed tobridge the gaps, especially in regard to the Indian women. Taking all the factors into
consideration, longevity estimates around 20-25 could be around 70 years, perhaps,without any distinction between men and women.This leads us to the second question of the remaining disease burden in communicableand non-communicable diseases, the effective of interventions, such as, immunizationand maternal care and the extent of vulnerability among some groups. These issues havebeen death with in detail earlier. Clearly an optimistic forecast would envisage success inpolio, yaws, leprosy, kalazar tilaria and blindness. As regards TB it is possible to arrestfurther growth in absolute numbers by 2010 and thereafter to bring it to less than anmillion withm internationally accepted limits by 2020. With regard to Malaria, theincidence can be reduced by a third or even upto half within a decade. In that case, onecan expect near freedom from Malaria from most of the countries by 2020. As regardsAIDS, it looks unlikely that infection can be leveled of by 2007. The prognosis in regardto the future shape of HIV / AIDS is uncertain. However, it can be a feasible aim toreduce maternal mortality from the present 400 to 100 per lakh population by 2010 andachieve world standards by 2020. As regards child health and nutrition, it is possible toreach IMRV30 per thousand live births by 2010 in most parts of the country though insome areas, it may take a few years more. What is important is the chance of two thirdsdecline in moderate malnutrition, and abolition of serious malnutrition completely by2015 in the case of Cancer, it is feasible to set up an integrated system for properscreening, early detection, self care and timely investigation and referral. In the matterof disease burden as a whole, it is feasible to attempt to reach standards comparable tochina from 2010 onwards.Taking the third aspect viz fairness in financing of health care and reformed structure ofhealth services, an optimistic forecast would be based on the fact that the full potential ofthe vast public health infrastructure would be fully realized by 2010. its extension tourban areas would be moderated to the extent substantial private provision of health careis available in urban areas, concentrating on its sensible and effective regulation. Areasonably wide network of private voluntary health insurance cover would be availablefor the bulk of the employed population and there would be models of replicablecommunity based health insurance available for the unorganized sector. As regards theprivate sector in medicine, it should be possible in the course of this decade to settle thepublic role of private medical practice - independent or institutional. For this purpose,more experiments are to be done for promoting public private partnerships, focusing onthe issue of how to erect on the basis of shared public health outcome as the key basis forthe partnership. A sensible mixture of external regulation and professional self-regulationcan be device in the consultation with the profession to ensure competence, quality andaccountability. The future of plural systems in medical understanding and evaluation ofcomparative levels of competence and reliability in different systems - a task in which,the separate department for Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy will play aleading role in inducting quality into the indigenous medical practices.The next issue relates to the desirable level of public expenditure towards health services.China devotes 4.5% to its G-DP as against India devoting 5.1%. but this hides the factthat in China, public expenditure constitutes 38% whereas in India, it is only 1S% oftotal health expenditure. An optimistic forecast would be that the level of publicexpenditure will be raised progressively such that about 30% of total health expenditurewould be met out of public funds by progressively increasing the health budget in states
and the central and charging user fees in appropriate cases. The figure mentioned wouldperhaps correspond to the proportion of the population which may still need assistance issocial development.Finally it is proper to remember that health is at bottom an issue in justice. It is in thiscontext that we should ask the question as to how far and in what way has politics beenengaged m health care? The record is disappointing. Most health sector issues figuring inpolitical debate are those that affect interest groups and seldom central to choices inhealth care policy. For instance conditions of service and reward systems forGovernment doctors have drawn much attention often based on inter service comparisonof no wider interest. Inter-system problems of our plural medical care have drawn moreattention from courts than from politics. Hospital management and strikes, poor workingof the MCI and corruption in recognition of colleges, dramatic cases of spurious drugsupply etc have been debated but there has been no sustained attention on such issues aswhy malaria recrudescence is so common in some parts of India or why complaints aboutabsence of informed consent or frequent in testing on women, or on the variations inprices and availability of essential drugs or for combating epidemic attacks in deprivedareas seldom draw attention. The far reaching recommendations made by the HathiCommittee report and or the Lentin Commission report, have been implementedpatchily. The role to be assigned to private sector in medicine, the need for a goodreferral system or the irrationality in drug prescriptions and sue have seldom been thepoint of political debate. Indeed the lack luster progress of MNP over the Plans showspolitical disinterest and the only way for politics to become more salient to the health ofthe poor and the reduction of health inequalities is for a much greater transfer of publicresources for provision and financing - as has happened in the West, not only in UK orCanada but in the US itself with a sizable outlay on Medicaid and Medicare.

domain: health


ELDER PATRIOT – From the “You-Can’t-Make-This-Shit-Up” file comes an announcement of a series of “family-friendly” initiatives from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. In announcing these new initiatives Carter prefaced his statements by saying this:
“Among the stresses military families face, having and raising children is near the top.”
You’d think that might mean a relaxing of the “Rules of Engagement” or restoring torture as an interrogation technique so that our young combat volunteers might have a higher probability of returning home to their families in one piece or without being court martialed for defending themselves.
Or, maybe an increase in their pay or their retirement benefits would be in order so they wouldn’t have to rely on food stamps in order to feed their families.
You’d be wrong.
The new directives can have no other goal than to denude the military of its backbone of readiness and ruggedness.
Carter cited statistics that retention among women in their child-bearing years is 30 percent lower than that of men because of the conflict between raising children and being in combat. No shit! This should be an accepted fact of life once there was acceptance of women into the military – if you even believe that a nation of able-bodied men should allow their women to fight for them.
Instead, our military continues to be stripped of the commitment required to conduct successful combat missions by these new directives as reported by cnsnews.com:
— 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave across the joint force, up from 6 weeks in many cases, but below the 18 weeks now offered by the Navy. “Certainly, offering a more generous standard for maternity leave is imperative for attracting and retaining talent,” Carter said. (He assured Navy women who are currently pregnant that they can take 18 weeks of leave.)
— 10-14 days of paid paternity leave for new fathers. “For those who want to become dads, or are about to, I want them to know this leave is available to them and I want them to make full use of it,” Carter said.
— New investments in subsidized child care: “We will increase child care access to 14 hours a day across the force…from before revellie to after taps,” Carter said.
— Making military workplaces more accommodating to women when they return from maternity leave: The focus here is to make it easier for new mothers to continue breast-feeding, if they choose to do that.
“To make the transition between maternity leave and returning to work for military mothers smoother, to enhance our mission effectiveness, and to comply with standards that apply to nearly every organization outside the military, I am requiring that a mother’s room be made available at every facility with more than 50 women, which means the establishment of some 3,600 rooms across the country,” Carter said.
— Reasonable accommodations for those who face geographic challenges: “For a family who has a son or daughter who receives treatment at a particular hospital or who suffers from a particular disability, remaining longer in location where their specialized high-quality care can make a world of difference,” Carter said. “Other families want to remain in one place longer to allow a son or daughter to finish high school in one place with friends, teachers and teams they’re close to. Or perhaps to be close to grandparents or other family. These are all important.
“When the needs of the force permit a service member to stay at their current location, we will empower commanders to make reasonable accommodations, in exchange for an additional service obligation.”
— Reproductive technologies: “We can help our men and women preserve their ability to start a family, even if they suffer certain combat injuries. That’s why we will cover the cost of freezing sperm or eggs through a pilot program for active duty service members — a benefit that will help provide men and women, especially those deployed in combat, with greater peace of mind. This investment will also provide greater flexibility for our troops who want to start a family, but find it difficult because of where they find themselves in their careers.”
Carter said he’s also committed to “continuing to look at how we can provide advanced reproductive technologies like IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) to a wider population. Today, we provide reduced cost treatment at six locations across the country, and we will study how to broaden this coverage in the future.”
These initiatives lay the groundwork for destroying cohesiveness and morale in units that must depend upon each other for synchronized movements on the field of combat in order to save lives. But, that’s not Carter’s concern. He’s more concerned with maintaining a force that is committed to lifetime service in order to fight the protracted wars that the military-industrial complex prefers.
America once brought overwhelming force to a conflict in order to end it as quickly and inexpensively as possible. That makes it difficult to explain large outlays of public money over protracted periods for military spending to America’s taxpayers. Have you ever stopped to think that we defeated the two most powerful armies in the world in less than four years during WW II but that we are now in our 13th year of fighting ill equipped Middle Eastern insurgencies with no end in sight?
After the massive campaign to win WW II America was left with a total outstanding debt of $54 billion dollars. Adjusting for inflation, we will spend around that much this year during a time of relative peace.
The protracted wars we’re witnessing in the Middle East have no end in sight but they do allow defense contractors and politicians to make the case for hundreds of billions of extra dollars to be earmarked to their businesses.


INDIANAPOLIS — A man is in "extremely critical condition" after a shooting Wednesday afternoon in a park on the northeast side of Indianapolis, according to police.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the shooting around 3:30 p.m. in Wes Montgomery Park, near East 34th Street and Emerson Avenue.
Officers arrived and found a man with at least one apparent gunshot wound in a car, IMPD Officer William Young said. It's unknown at this time if the man was shot in the car or somewhere else.
This is the second shooting in about two hours Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis. A woman was found shot and killed around 2 p.m. on John Marshall Drive.
These incidents remain under investigation and anyone with information is asked to call police or report tips anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS (8477).


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Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief statement on guilty verdict in death of Barbara Kentner
ANISHINABEK NATION HEAD OFFICE (December 14, 2020) – Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Glen Hare shares his statement following the guilty verdict determined earlier today for the manslaughter charge in the killing of Barbara Kentner, a First Nation woman residing in Thunder Bay, Ont., in 2017.
“While this verdict will never bring back Barbara, and may not bring much comfort for all those who continue to be deeply impacted by her loss, this guilty verdict is recognizing that she lost her life at the hands of racism,” states Grand Council Chief Glen Hare. “This verdict is a small glimmer of hope that if we all continue to seek justice for these inhumane, undignified acts of violence rooted in racism in a united effort with our brothers, sisters and allies across Turtle Island, that one day they may come to an end and our next seven generations will live in a safer world.”
On January 29, 2017, Barbara Kentner, was struck in the lower abdomen by a trailer hitch thrown from a moving vehicle while she and her sister were walking in a residential neighbourhood in Thunder Bay. The assailant was heard yelling from the vehicle, “Oh, I got one”, after throwing the hitch at the sisters. Days shortly after the incident, Thunder Bay Police Service arrested an 18-year-old man, Brayden Bushby, and charged him with aggravated assault.
Following surgery and extensive medical care and despite her tremendous efforts, she did not recover from her injuries and died on July 4, 2017. After her death, the charges were upgraded to second-degree murder; however, in September 2020, the charge was downgraded to the first charge of manslaughter and a second charge of aggravated assault. Bushby had a four-day trial in early November this year where he plead guilty to aggravated assault and not guilty to manslaughter.
This tragedy is one example of many that is common for Indigenous people in the Thunder Bay area and Indigenous people throughout the province to experience. Violent crimes accompanied by racial slurs or implications are considered hate crimes. Despite this guilty verdict, the leniencies and inadequacies in charges laid in the justice system in response to violence against Indigenous women and girls are linked to The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice on tougher sentencing and harmful institutional-based policies and practices.
“Leadership, communities, and technicians at the Anishinabek Nation have been continuously advocating ending systemic racism and discrimination against Indigenous women and girls,” says Grand Council Chief Glen Hare. “And we will continue to relentlessly advocate on behalf of our people; requesting federal and provincial Members of Parliament who are in positions to make changes to do their part to address the systemic and overt racism that plague all of the institutions across the territory. We unceasingly demand that the Prime Minister of Canada along with the Premiers in every Province act decisively to truly put an end to this.”
Sentencing hearing for Brayden Bushby is scheduled for February 9, 2021.

domain: law


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Youth with Disabilities and Employment Success
|This is an archived program and therefore, may not contain current information.|
Students with disabilities in Mississippi are less likely than their classmates without disabilities to graduate from high school with a diploma. They are less likely to receive the job training they need, attend college, or find a meaningful job. Without employment, departing students are immediately dependent on their parents or society.
- Only 27 percent of youth with disabilities graduate from high school compared to 75 percent of students without disabilities.
- Only 1 in 3 youth with disabilities receive job training.
- The unemployment rate for people with disabilities hovers between 50 and 75 percent.
- There are an estimated 350,000 people with disabilities, including 40,000 with developmental disabilities—the highest rate of individuals with disabilities per population in the United States.
- The state’s rate of accident-related disabilities is one of the highest in the nation with approximately 130 spinal cord injuries and 5,000 cases of traumatic brain injury each year.
- The number of children receiving SSI—2.97 percent—is double the Southeastern average and triple the national average.
- In 2000, 62,153 children, birth through 21, were served by special education in the Mississippi public schools. This total includes learning disabilities, severe/low incidence disabilities, physical disabilities, vision and hearing impairments, emotional disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, mild to moderate disabilities, and autism.

domain: sociology


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|Have your team pennant framed with this high quality solid oak wood triangle frame. The frame provides an inset for displaying your team pennant and includes hanging brackets. There is no glass, so you can feel the fabric and custom embroidery of the pennant. Looks great in your home or on your office wall. |
This is a highly collectible pennant from Winning Streak Sports that will bring a sense of nostalgia for your favorite team that just won the 2005 World Series. The oversized wool pennant is made with the highest quality embroidery and appliqué. The Chicago White Sox team logo will be shown in vibrant colors. 70% wool and 30% acrylic.
13" x 32"
See full selection of MLB Baseball Pennants and Banners.

domain: hobby


Technical performance, highly breathable with incredible comfort
Oyuki's Yamapro 2L collection is all about equipping riders for the resort and shorter powder trips.
These snow pants feature YamaPro™ Always Dry technology for total waterproofness and breathability and a pre-shaped cut to give you plenty of freedom of movement.
The Miharashi pants offer top-notch performance, excellent protection against moisture both inside and out, and exceptional durability.
Shell: Great as the outer layer
- Article number: 704233
- Gender: Men
Material specifications according to manufacturer, subject to change.
Measure for the waterproofness of outerwear. From a water column of 4.000 it is considered waterproof. The higher the value, the better suited for extreme weather.
The capacity of the garment to channel perspiration away from the body whilst providing protection from moisture and cold. The higher the value, the more comfortable in extreme situations.
- Fit: Regular fit
- Boot gaiter
- Reinforced cuffs
- Jacket-to-pant connection
- Boot hook
- YamaPro™ Always Dry technology
- Articulated cut for fit and freedom of movement
- Clip for snow skirt
- Zipped pockets on the hip and right thigh
- Schoeller Kevlar reinforced cuffs
Oyuki is a Japanese brand from the north of Hokkaido and translated means "Big Snow". The region surrounding their headquarters is covered in snow during winter. This offers the best setting to test and improve their gear. Thanks to Japanese quality, their outwear offers the best performance for power days.


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asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that no compensation has yet been agreed between the Brazilian Government and the Ceara Tramway Light and Power Company; and since this British-owned public utility undertaking operating in Brazil was taken over by Federal decree in July last, if he will now assure the British stockholders that payment of compensation will be regarded as an essential condition in the settlement of any pending agreements with the Brazilian Government.
The answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative. As regards the second part, my right hon. Friend is not prepared to give in advance so broad an undertaking as that proposed by the hon. Member. He may rest assured, however, that His Majesty's Government are most anxious to secure payment of fair compensation to the British shareholders of this Company. His Majesty's Ambassador at Rio de Janeiro is continuing to press the Brazilian authorities to respond to the representations he has already made in this matter.


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A couple of examples of the toys I make from odd socks, spare buttons and beads. The first is inspired by Frank of Donnie Darko. This is the first ever sock doll I made and as it was my first attempt, he has been claimed by my boyfriend who has developed a cheeky habit of laying claim to all my first-born inventions!
The second was a christmas present for my lovely mum, who has always wanted to keep pigs but never lived anywhere big enough! This little fella is happy with pride of place on the bedside table. Just feed him a handful of muesli occasionally and make sure to cuddle him often and he'll be as happy as Larry...whoever he is.
I also made an elephant for my boyfriend at christmas. I'll put a picture up when I get chance.

domain: artistic


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Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has made it clear that vaccinating the Nepali citizens against COVID-19 is the first and foremost priority of the government led by him. Addressing the first meeting of the reinstated House of Representatives on Sunday, Prime Minister Deuba made the promise regarding the vaccination. Prime Minister Deuba had secured the trust vote in the Sunday House meeting. On Monday, the government appealed all vaccine producing countries to provide additional COVID-19 vaccines either through grant assistance or through procurement process. The government made the appeal by holding a Cabinet meeting at Singha Durbar that decided to request friendly countries for additional assistance. The Cabinet meeting also thanked the vaccine providing countries for their recent support.
On Monday, Prime Minister Deuba started a new vaccination drive against the COVID-19 with the Johnson & Johnson vaccines provided by the United States of America. The Prime Minister inaugurated the vaccination drive at the Attarkhel-based Nepal Orthopedic Hospital. Addressing the inauguration function, the Prime Minister reiterated that ensuring the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for all citizens was the topmost priority of the government. On Monday, Prime Minister Deuba inspected the vaccination centers at Nepal Orthopedic Hospital, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Bir Hospital-based COVID-19 Central Unified Hospital and Patan Hospital. More than 1.5 million doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated by the US government under the COVAX arrangements are being administered from Tuesday in various parts of the country.
The vaccines have started being administered in the Kathmandu Valley, Kavre and some districts of Gandaki province from Monday. According to officials at the Ministry of Health and Population, the vaccines would be made available throughout the country soon. Contrary to other vaccines, a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficient to develop immunity against COVID-19. In this phase, the priority for the vaccination has been given to the citizens aged between 50 and 54 years, differently-abled people, refugees, health workers and sanitation workers who missed their jabs before. Earlier, Covishield of India and Vero Cell shots from China were administered to the people on priority basis. As per the update of the ongoing vaccination drive of the health Ministry, over 3 million people were vaccinated with first dose while 1.1 million citizens were inoculated with both doses.
The second wave of COVID-19 has not phased out yet. Although the number of infected people from COVID-19 has not gone down below thousand daily most recently, the government has eased the restriction measures for infection prevention. The suspected third wave of COVID-19 with more deadly delta variant is looming large. The outbreak of the third wave has been feared in Nepal India. If it grips the southern neighbour, it is likely to create alarm here too. Vaccination is the only the proven way to remain safe from COVID-19. So, the government under Prime Minister Deuba should take a fast track approach of vaccination drive across the country to inoculate the entire population as soon as possible.

domain: medical