Health Infrastructure

Email sent to Mamata Banerjee on 02-Mar-2012

Dear CM,

Health infrastructure has long been ignored by both state and central government. I have few suggestions to improve health infrastructure of Bengal. I have categorized my suggestions into short and long term strategy. These suggestions are equally applicable for other states.

Short Term Strategy

1. Outsource cleanliness of all government hospitals to a reputed private company. It is a common practice in private hospitals also.

2. Outsource management of pharmacy in all government hospitals, block primary health center and primary health center to a reputed private company to avoid distribution of fake, expired medicines.

3. Outsource maintenance of equipment of all government hospitals to a reputed private company.

4. Deploy Mobile Medical Van with small OT, pathological lab, X-ray, USG machine in each of 341 blocks of the state. It  can treat at least three hundred people plus immunization and awareness to more than one thousand people, per day.

5. Setup 24X7 Call center for Medical advise. Recruit 200 para medics to run the call center.

6. Connect 9 medical college hospitals, 16 district hospitals, 45 sub divisional hospitals, 34 state general hospitals, 269 rural hospitals and 99 block primary health center with video facility.  

7. Provide an ambulance to all government hospitals and block primary health centers.

8. Every year 3.5 lacs new babies are born in WB. When a woman becomes pregnant, give a food coupon of Rs 1,000 every month till delivery, to buy food and mineral water to families with monthly income less than Rs 15,000. This will greatly reduce mortality rate and ease the pressure on BC Roy like Hospitals.

9. All kids from poorer section of the society must be given Pediasure kind of food supplement till the age of 5 free of cost.

10. Purchase few basic equipments like portable ultrasonography, portable x-ray and portable pathological equipment in each sub divisional hospitals, state general hospitals, rural hospitals and block primary health center. 

11. Every doctor who is doing private practice must see at least 10 patients either in person or through video link everyday for a fee not exceeding Rs 50 per patient. Every primary health center must have a complete list of doctors in the state and must be able to seek an appointment with any doctor on behalf of the patient.

12. 10% of hospital beds must be reserved for economically weaker section of the society and the total cost of treatment per patient not exceeding Rs 50,000 has to be borne by the hospital.

13. Every surgeon must offer 20 hours of operation time to poor (specially footpath dwellers) free of cost every month.

14. Tag all hospitals (medical college, district/sub divisional/state general/rural hospitals) with private hospitals/nursing home for better management.

15. Let state government define a citizen charter which must be followed by each government and private hospital. An independent private body must monitor the quality of service provided by hospitals. 

16. Doctors and hospitals must be evaluated by patient through online/manual feedback form.

17. Department wise complete information of all doctors like specialization, address of chambers, number of patients treated/operated per day, success rate etc should be available online for patients to choose from.

18. Set the upper limit of charges of all hospital services like doctor consultation, investigation, bed, operation theatre etc.

Long Term Strategy

1. Appoint an expert from Germany or France or UK to guide the ministry to improve health infrastructure of the state.

2. Medical Tourism - national and international. Build four Vellore like super specialty hospitals to attract patients from all over India, sub continent and other parts of the world.

3. Manufacturing hub for medical equipment through PPP channel.

4. One stop hospital for sports injuries in line with Kuala Lumpur Sports Medicine Centre (http://www.klsmc.com/)

5. Improve doctor patient ratio for the state. National figure is 1:1700. Cuba has the best ratio in the world - 1:170, US - 1:390. If health infrastructure improves, more and more NRI 

doctors will return to WB.

6. Currently WB produces 2,000 doctors every year. It should be increased to 10,000 in next 5 years.

7. Build 500 bed modern hospital like Columbia Asia in each district and 50 bed sate of the art smaller hospitals in each block through PPP channel. All newly built hospitals must follow general international hospital standard. If 80% of the population is covered under insurance, there is no reason why private companies will not build hospitals in rural areas.

8. Upgrade existing government/private hospitals and nursing homes to international standard if found below standard. 

Finance
1. Improve VAT collection process. Government loses great amount of VAT due to non payment. Make debit/credit card mandatory for all transactions over Rs 2,000 in cities and towns.

2. 10% cess on hospitalization expense above Rs 100,000 and 7% cess on OPD Doctor fee above Rs 300

3. Every person with monthly income of Rs 50,000 must bear the premium of medical insurance not exceeding Rs 7,000 per year for the family of his housemaid/driver/security guard. All business unit big or small must compulsorily provide medical insurance for the family of its employee. All taxi/auto drivers and Rickshaw pullers must buy their family insurance and Govt should impose Rs 2 insurance tax per trip on customer so that drivers can earn extra Rs 30 per day for 250 days a year to pay for the premium. Similarly for landless farmers, carpenters, porters and others, increase daily wage by Rs 30 per day so that they can pay their premium. For unemployed/partially employed persons who cannot bear the insurance amount, government must pay the premium for them till they get fully employed.

4. Introduce insurance for medicine consumed for normal illness which does not require hospitalization with 25% deductible. Medicines which are sold under controlled doctor's prescription will be covered under this insurance.

5. Corporate must support our kids whose parents are below poverty line up to age 5. Each corporate must take charge of kids twice the number of their employee strength. For example TCS has 100,000 employees. They should sponsor 200,000 kids. Corporate must provide food, clothes, toys and food supplement like Pediasure to the kids. Corporate should enjoy complete tax exemption on the investment.

6. To attract investment in health care, provide non agricultural land, electricity and water free for 10 years. Waive custom duty for equipment purchased for hospital use.

7. Government of India along with state governments must deploy medical vans with OT, X-ray, USG and pathological lab facility @ Rs 30 lacs per van to all blocks of India. Big corporate houses like Tata, ITC, Wipro and others should come forward to donate medical vans.

8. Advertisements could also be a good source of income for hospitals. Make all prominent spaces of the hospital like reception, nursing stations, doors, OPD etc available to advertisers.