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Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Saturday, July 15, organised Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy Memorial Oration on the topic “HEALTH FOR ALL BY 2030” Prof. (Dr) Sukumar Mukherjee, Senior Consultant Medical Practitioner, Retired Professor & Head, Dept. of Medicine, Calcutta Medical College, Dr. Kunal Sarkar, Senior Vice Chairman & Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, MEDICA Superspecialty Hospital, Shri Rupak Barua, Group Chief Executive Officer & Director, AMRI Group of Hospitals and Shri PK Tondon, Chief Executive Officer, Belle Vue Clinic spoke on the occasion. MCCI felicitated Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee for his outstanding contribution to the field of medical sciences. Other eminent doctors and personalities were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Mukherjee after receiving the felicitation from MCCI President, Namit Bajoria said, that there was a time when a doctor’s words were the last word and no one could challenge a doctor. There were very few varieties of medicines on which doctors would have had to depend. Nevertheless, there were doctors like BC Roy, who despite having diverse involvement gave great attention to healthcare.
He was the only chief minister of the country who did not allow political interference in his work.
Mr. Barua said the healthcare industry was growing at 22% CAGR. He said the Indian healthcare industry was a $372 billion revenue-generating industry at present and private sector health insurance, which mostly came up post covid, has created accessibility to the healthcare system. But affordability is a vital point and quality healthcare is a major issue. Only 3% of the 50,000 hospitals in the country are 100-bed hospitals and 2% of the total 50,000 hospitals are NABH accredited, Barua said.
Dr. Kunal Sarkar, who delivered the BC Roy Memorial Oration, said while only 3% of the hospitals are 100-bed hospitals the rest 97% of the hospitals are the mainstay of India’s healthcare segment. The concept of health for all originated from the industrial movement in Europe thereby followed by the Communist movement in Europe that started demanding healthcare for all. Thrashing both Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee, Sarkar said that the Ayushman Bharat and the Swastha Sathi Scheme are all run by taxpayers’ money. So, one rejecting the others’ scheme is actually mis-utilising public money.
In India, for health care, 70% of the people’s expenditures are out of the pocket expenditure and the CAG has been looking into it. However, from 2019 onward out of pocket expenditure has come down but West Bengal’s out-of-pocket expenditure still remains at 68.2%.
Tondon said of penetrating into districts with healthcare facilities and everything concentrating in the cities will not be able to achieve Health Care for All by 2030. Seven years would be too short a time to achieve the goal, Tondon said.
MCCI President Namit Bajoria in his welcome address said the theme of the National Doctors Day for 2023 is “Celebrating Resilience & Healing Hands”. The theme comes in the context of the coronavirus disease which created new obstacles for healthcare workers throughout the world and how they responded to the challenge of treating patients at a cost of great personal sacrifice. and how they responded to the challenge of treating patients at the cost of great personal sacrifice.
Post Pandemic, the healthcare system has undergone huge changes. Now with the pandemic under control, how is the healthcare system being rolled out? Doctors along with entrepreneurs have brought about exponential growth to the healthcare industry with Covid triggering it. Bajoria said as a business chamber, we foresee a maximum investment in the healthcare segment in the coming days.
Shri Rajendra Khandelwal, MCCI Chairman for the Council on Health mentioned Dr. BC Roy’s illustrious career and said, he would remain an inspiration for the medical fraternity forever.
