updated: Apr 04 2021, 10:51 ist
The clock is ticking on India s Covid-19 vaccination drive. The world s second-most populous nation has to inoculate 35 crore citizens in the shortest possible time after it threw open jabs to everyone above 45 years. The race against time gets more testing due to the hurdles ahead, and some that persist from the previous phases.
First, vaccinators are short-handed, which compounds the poor healthcare infrastructure. Second, the private sector is dragging its feet, posing a big challenge to scaling up operations. The lack of engagement with people from the lower socio-economic background isn t helping the already slow exercise.
Over and above all these obstacles, vaccine hesitancy continues even among the urban and educated. Nearly 80 days after rolling out the Covid-19 vaccination, India has vaccinated less than one crore individuals with the required two doses to protect them from the rampaging pandemic.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan approves National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021
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Union Health Minister approves National Policy for Rare Diseases
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Photograph by Maneesh Agnihotri
Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare, joined the Analjit Singh-promoted hospital chain in January 2001 as a founder member. I have seen the growth of Max, which started as a small ambulatory care centre at Panchsheel Park in New Delhi, says Budhiraja. The veteran doctor now works under a new Chairman and Managing Director, 46-year-old Abhay Soi, formerly a turnaround and restructuring specialist with firms, including Arthur Anderson, EY and KPMG. We are now the most profitable and fastest-growing healthcare company in India and the second largest in terms of revenue, says Soi.
Veteran healthcare professional Dilip Jose was advising TPG Capital for close to two years, before taking over as Managing Director and CEO of Manipal Health Enterprises (MHEL) in early 2018. Prior to that, he was Group CEO at Hyderabad-based Care Hospitals. Now his former employer Care Hospitals has a new owner, Dubai-based private equity investor
NEW DELHI: The National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 (NPRD) was notified on March 31. The policy provides financial support of up to Rs 20 lakh, under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi, for the treatment of rare diseases (RD) listed under group 1 (amenable to one time treatment- either hematopoietic stem cell transplant or organ transplant). Beneficiaries for such financial assistance would not be limited to BPL families, but extended to about 40% of the population, who are eligible as per Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, for their treatment in government tertiary hospitals only.
However, the NPRD does not provide any financial support for patients of Group 3 diseases, which have a definite treatment but is life-long and expensive. It is estimated that for a child weighing 10 kg, the annual cost of treatment for some rare diseases may vary from Rs 10 lakh to more than Rs 1 crore per year with treatment being lifelong and drug dose and cost increasing with age and weight. For such patients,