There is an immediate need to establish a sturdy, scalable, agile and healthcare infrastructure:
DVS Somaraju, Executive Director, SLG Hospitals opinedon the topic of the post-Covid future of
the healthcare ecosystem
Forecasting the disease progression is essential for capacity planning, and PHC, UPHC and primary level private healthcare mechanism in districts should be scaled up to cater to the three-fold increase in Covid cases by September: SubodhKandamuthan, Professor & Director, Centre for Health Care Management, ASCI
Hyderabad, August 21, 2020: SLG Hospitals, in collaboration with FICCI, Hyderabad Chapter organised a webinar titled: ‘Reimagining the Healthcare Ecosystem – Covid-19 Learnings.’
The panelists included DVS Somaraju, Executive Director, SLG Hospitals, Dr. V Jaganmohan, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. P Vijay Varma, Nephrologist, Dr.Aarathi Bellary, Internal Medicine, Dr. Edmond Fernandes, CEO, CHD Group and SubodhKandamuthan, Professor & Director, Centre for Health Care Management at Administrative Staff College of India.
Thanks to Covid-19, the masks may have permanently stuck to our faces as a new reality. Governments and people are grappling with ways and means to fight the seemingly contradictory priorities of fighting the spread of the pandemic and lift the economies plummeting in a nearly free-fall mode.
People are still in a dazed confusion. Should they go to a government hospital or a private sector hospital? Is the government spending enough on saving lives and health? The world is in a race to create the prized vaccine – when can it be expected? Would it be safe and effective? What can the healthcare system and the economy in general do differently to rise above theseuncertain times and come up with a resilient and adaptive restart strategy?
The conversation elicited all these and much more from the experienced and erudite panel of speakers. DVS Somaraju stated that coping with Covid-19 has caused seismic shifts in the way care is provided. Established norms and operational best practices have all required a rehaul. Parallelly, new initiatives are being planned and introduced to provide both lifesaving care for Covid-positive patients as well as routine care for patients whose regular needs and visits have to be addressed.From the design and construction of facilities, the training of healthcare workers, and the optimal settings for care delivery, there is the need to deal with Covid-accentuated challenges and the healthcare ecosystem is surely and steadily adapting to the need of the times.
SubodhKandamuthan, with his strategic experiencein healthcare policy and capacity building at both National and State levels, was of the opinion that Countries with good health systems have been able to handle the impact of the Covid crisis better, owing to their focus on public health infrastructure, manpower and good surveillance. It is imperative for India to allocatea ‘healthy’ health budget and strengthen our public health system, he said, adding that public-private partnership is the only way, going forward, to mitigate the situation, not only at tertiary but at primary and secondary levels too.
Dr. V Jaganmohan, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. P Vijay Varma, Nephrologist, and Dr.Aarathi Bellary, Internal Medicine offered their views on the challenges being faced by the healthcare system currently, the new normal in healthcare, patient expectations and the growing role of telemedicine and its related issues.
Dr. Edmond Fernandeswas of the opinion that investing in healthcare is not a privilege but a fundamental obligation and thus,strengthening primary healthcare, investing in quality level labs, long-term R&D, working with non-government organisations to build community ownership in healthcare and building a model of social health are non-negotiable. While our social policies should include all, and narrow the gulf in healthcare accessibility, it is high time for corporate industries to invest in social responsibility at the grassroots, rather than for optics.
SLG Hospitals is a multi-superspecialty tertiary and quaternary level care hospital operating from Nizampet, Hyderabad. The 999-bed SLG Hospitals delivers effective and empathetic care across 40 specialties from under one roof. Committed to providing “Affordable Quality Healthcare for All”, its vision is to make world-class medical care accessible to ensure healthier communities.
