Dimapur, July 9: The “North East Healthcare Summit”, a two-day program was held at Guwahati. The event was organized by FICCI and Public Health Foundation of India. Over 200 delegates including doctors from the northeast states, national and regional speakers and stakeholders representing hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical devices companies and others participated in the deliberations.
“To achieve inclusive development, major public and private sector investments are required in Health care in the North East” was the key message that emerged from the two-day North East Health Care Summit.
The summit was inaugurated by Minister of Health and FW, Mizoram, Lal Thanzara, in presence of Chairman, FICCI NE Advisory Council, Ranjit Barthakur, President Public Health Foundation of India, Dr K Srinath Reddy, Vice president PHFI, Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, and state Health Ministers from Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Members of Parliaments from northeast states.
During his address, Health Minister of Mizoram Lal Thanzara, congratulated the organisers– FICCI and PHFI for organising the important summit that highlighted key issues in today’s evolving healthcare scenario pertinent to northeast parts of India. However he lamented that due to lack of financial resources, skilled manpower in health, tough terrains and quality medical colleges, healthcare has taken a back seat in this region.
“Poor healthcare services in the northeast and the need to enhance manpower, including setting up of more medical colleges in the region the requirement of the day. There is an urgent need to review the progress of schemes sanctioned by centre or the NEC towards the improvement of healthcare services in the region, especially infrastructure, in addition to finding out better ways and means to remove health problems and inaccessibility to quality healthcare especially in rural areas of the region. At present, only Assam, Tripura and Manipur have been able to set up their own medical colleges” he added
Chairman of FICCI NE Advisory Council Ranjit Barthakur, said the northeast region has the potential to become the new growth driver for the Indian economy but stress that it would happen only if ‘the population can function to its full potential, unbridled by the burden of diseases’.
“Globally, an average of 2.9 beds are available per 1000 population, therefore to even reach anywhere close to the global average, the North East would need over 8 lakh additional hospital beds” Ranjit added.
The president of Public Health Foundation of India, Dr K Srinath Reddy, in his video address said, “Northeast is one of the most vibrant regions in India, but its health indicators have unfortunately lagged behind rest of India on many counts. But with so much technological and infrastructure advancements, it is time to bring about a rapid improvement in the public health indicators, especially in light of the renewed commitment by the central government towards speedy achievement of universal health coverage in the entire North-east region. With a view to complement various state and national level health initiatives, in this two day summit, all stakeholders be it policymakers, industry and health practitioners, will come up with a forward looking plan to improve the health scenario in the entire region, and become a major healthcare hub for entire southeast Asia.”
The two-day summit discussed various problems in the Health Sector in the northeast states including shortage of trained medical manpower, providing access to sparsely populated, remote, far flung areas, improvement of governance in the Health sector, need for improved quality of health services and making effective and full utilization of existing resources.
The summit also highlighted the emerging opportunities for health care in areas like medical value tourism and alternative & complimentary medicine, which aimed at mainstreaming of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) systems and the revitalization of local health traditions (LHT) within the policy on medical pluralism currently being implemented in the entire country.
