‘Govt should strengthen public hospitals’
| Date :22-Apr-2019 |
Dr Hozie Kapadia
By Vikas Vaidya:
Dr Hozie Kapadia is President of Maharashtra State branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA). He was in city to grace the installation of new body of IMA, Nagpur. He took out time from his busy schedule to share his views with ‘The Hitavada’ on how to make health care affordable in India. Excerpts: Which are the three things you planned while taking over as President of Maharashtra IMA? I planned many things but out of those the three most important issues are: To press for increasing budget on health of GDP, to demand for increase in number of Government hospitals, to oppose crosspathy. How much amount of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to you, should India spend on health? Presently India has earmarked 0.5 per cent amount of GDP for health. In my view it should be increased to 3.5-4 per cent. If that is done then the public hospitals will grow.
Growing of public hospitals will result in benefitting poor and middle class. Don’t you think strengthening of public hospitals affect growth of private hospitals? No. It will not affect the growth of private hospitals. They are here to stay. But at present because of poor condition of public hospitals people have to move to private hospitals forcibly and they are not able to pay. If Government pour lot of money in their own hospitals, the need of private hospitals gradually lower down. Population is rising so nobody’s growth will be hampered but strengthening Government-run hospitals can give way to affordable health to all. Today some of the health treatments no more remained everybody’s cup of tea.
This situation is not good. In what way are you taking up the issue of strengthening of public hospitals with the Government? I met number of times to our State Health Minister Eknath Shinde to make him aware about the dwindling condition of public hospitals. I also suggested him to increase public hospitals in Maharashtra. Our public health system right from Primary Health Centres to tertiary care hospitals all should be made stronger through a proper planning. Which things according to you lack in public hospitals? Public hospitals have shortage of staff, their buildings are in dilapidated condition, they lack proper medicine stock, they don’t have instrument. We need to add these many things to the existing hospitals and also we should build more well-equipped hospitals. We should streamline ambulance services too. What is your view on College of Physicians and Surgeons? It is not good.
Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has already identified faults in functioning of CPS. Unfortunately, people across Maharashtra are falling prey to it. Why do you oppose crosspathy? Every pathy has its own identity. There is a certain period within which students study their pathies. Now after spending certain amount of time there is no need to learn the nuances of other pathies. It is not possible to study it in just six months. It is impossible and dangerous to the society. IMA strongly opposes the crosspathy.