Hyderabad: Top health experts like Dr G.V.S. Murthy, director of the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Dr Shamanna, Professor, School of Medicine Sciences, Shekhar Agarwal, chairman of the Health Committee, spoke at the Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) round table discussion, ‘Quality & Affordable Health For All — Vision 2030.’
Dr Murthy said that the focus must be laid on APPs - affordability, accessibility, acceptability, accountability, auditability, adaptability, preparedness of healthcare systems, prevention, partnerships, patient-centred care, population-based, primary care, and point of car diagnostics.
"The primary health care system in Sri Lanka is strong. Their life expectancy is 5 years ahead of us. We must put more resources into basic healthcare which subsequently reduces the burden of tertiary care," he said.
A panellist suggested creating human resources in public-funded healthcare systems while another asked why there is a variance in the cost of medicine and sought that telemedicine be encouraged.
The topic of homoeopathy brought about an appeal to work towards validating and establishing protocols and integrating homoeopathy into modern medicine.
Discussions included topics about inadequate human resources, improper training imparted, rules and regulations, inaccurate spending of available resources, universal health coverage, resource utilisation and proper design, demand generation and supply.
Experts noted that short and ad hoc solutions are bound to fail while those created with efficiency are at the core survive, despite rebranding. Budget allocation, wasted resources, mismanagement and corruption were other hotly debated topics.
A panellist suggested that one of the first steps to affordable healthcare can run on the philosophy of prevention is better than cure y teaching children in schools and colleges to stay fit. Some other panellists suggested minimal intervention of the government and entrepreneurship, while others raised points about introspecting the portrayal of doctors in show business, especially cinema.
A session on AYUSH was also held where Ayurvedic doctors discussed their focus is on disease prevention, nutrition and immunity, looking at food as medicine, improving existing healthcare education and a patient-centric approach through innovation and technology.
