Warrier's Collage on National Solidarity Day 2024

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, October 20, 2024 Prayer 🙏 Vishnu Sahasranamam https://youtu.be/4sOfZIWeZqM?si=DB53CtoSmXZQnCRt A Collage Editorial Universal healthcare* M G Warrier It's high time India chalks out a plan to provide healthcare to all its citizens, irrespective of their economic status. Other countries are working toward it and have already moved passed us. If the scenario has to improve, we must act faster. Sadly, from Centre and states, so far, only sporadic efforts responding to the needs of specific categories of beneficiaries are being thought of. This includes health insurance for elders, improvement in facilities in primary health centres by state governments and so on. National health cover to address access and affordability issues for ensuring universal healthcare is an idea whose time has come in India. Of late, for compelling reasons, including the comparisons with nations that have moved passed us in this respect, sporadic efforts to improve healthcare infrastructure are being made by the government and private organisations working in the field of healthcare. At a global level, through intervention by organisations like World Health Organisation and at the national level, there have been moves to provide better healthcare to more people. Unfortunately, most of the improvements have been in the private sector, whose facilities are unaffordable to a large section of the population. Despite the priority to universal health coverage given by the government at the highest level, the government’s responsibility to ensure minimum healthcare along with other basic needs has not been integrated into planning and budgeting process yet. The Kolkata Declaration (February 2010) by the Kolkata Group, presided by Amartya Sen and attended by 45 social scientists, policy makers and development experts should have been an eye-opener for authorities responsible for converting constitutional guarantees on human rights into public services. In the changed context of economic development, public and private funds need to be pooled in, to make medical facilities, including preventive healthcare, available to every citizen, irrespective of economic status. Costs should be recovered from those who can afford to pay, but cost should not stand in the way of a citizen’s access to essential services, especially emergency medical attention, whether the facility is public or private. For ensuring that such efforts do not suffer for want of finance, the Government of India should earmark an appropriate percentage of revenue expenditure, for providing basic necessities to the underprivileged. The government should not shy away from subsidising costs for providing universal public healthcare for the poor. Mere increase in expenditure on healthcare as a percentage to GDP does not indicate any increase in outreach to the needy, as the bulk of the funds are likely to be cornered by big hospitals in cities or appropriated by insurance or pharmaceutical companies under various heads. For achieving the desired result, a top-to-bottom overhaul of the healthcare infrastructure and funding modalities may have to be taken up. Long ago, there was a report about the efforts of Manipal Health Enterprises to dispense with the comprehensive primary and polyclinic-style preventive and curative wellness services in residential areas, and bring back the family physician mode. This is worth reviving and emulating nation-wide by the medical profession and service providers in the area of healthcare. The model of the National Health Service (NHS) in UK, which takes care of the healthcare needs of each citizen by linking them to general practitioners (GPs) and good hospital facilities, may be a distant dream for a country like ours, though, with a population over 1.2 billion and limited resources being allocated to healthcare. Still, linking the healthcare needs of each family to a local doctor, primary health centre, private hospital or at least a health inspector from the state government health department would create more health awareness, improve preventive healthcare and reduce delay in diagnosis of cases where quick medical attention would minimise the chances of complications. As the benefit of health insurance and the option to avail of medical facilities in the private sector is presently the privilege of a miniscule percentage of the population, who either work in the organised sector or are in the above poverty line category, such an effort is necessary to increase the outreach of healthcare. Here, coordinating various commercial ventures in health services and government efforts from a social responsibility angle would be necessary. Perhaps, an initiative in this direction could be taken by local chapters of the Indian Medical Association and respective state government health departments. The UK NHS model could be a distant goal. There are many arrangements under which general practitioners can work in the UK. While the aim of a UK doctor is to become a principal or partner in a GP surgery, many become salaried or non-principal GPs, work in hospitals in GP-led acute care units. M G Warrier *Updated, abridged version of my article published in Moneylife : https://www.moneylife.in/article/universal-healthcare-when-will-the-government-act/30971.html B National Solidarity Day 2024 https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/national-solidarity-day-exploring-history-and-significance-of-the-observance-18084411.htm India commemorates National Solidarity Day on October 20 to honour the soldiers who fought during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. This significant day marks the national integrity displayed by India in its conflict with China. C Books on my table I have picked up two books for perusal this week(October 20 to 26, 2024) from my home library. One is "Joy of Achievement" by R M Lala about J R D Tata and the second one is "Brand Custodian : My Years with the TATAS" by Mukund Rajan. Last few years I go back to these two books often. D Media Response Letters October 18, 2024 Tenure at the top* This refers to the report "CJI Chandrachud recommends Justice Sanjiv Khanna's name as successor" (The Hindu Business Line, October 18). The Apex Court has been maintaining the exemplary tradition of the seniormost Justice succeeding the Chief Justice when the position becomes vacant, irrespective of the residual tenure of the new incumbent. Considering the changed environment, it may be desirable to think of having incumbents with longer tenure, say minimum 1 to 2 years for topmost positions in august national level institutions including Supreme Court. To protect the interests and give respect to seniors whom such appointees will be superseding, such elders may be compensated by giving personal promotion and monetary benefits available to the topmost position. M G Warrier Mumbai *Not published