Health Commission mooted for B'lore

At a consultative meeting here on Wednesday, Tri Sector Preventive Health Care Foundation (CTPHCF) urged the State Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights, S Suresh Kumar to bring out special laws to facilitate the setting up of the Health Commission.

Besides CTPHCF, the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and the Commonwealth Association for Medical Handicap and Developmental Disabilities (CAMHADD) were part of the meeting.

“There is a lot of corruption in healthcare. Many poor people are not given medical attention immediately. The UN Special Rapporteur during his visit to India in 2007 had suggested that the Commission should be established both at the State and national levels to monitor and regulate private and public hospitals," said Dr V R Pandurangi, founder and Patron, CAMHADD. The meet also aimed at making Bangalore as a model for preventive healthcare.

CTPHCF in its declaration of on Health and Human Rights also stressed the need to create tri-sector partnership - Government, Public Private Partnership and NGOs - model in healthcare. It also urged the government to form a National Institute of Human Rights to create awareness on Health and Human Rights for politicians, bureaucrats, health professionals, etc.

Interestingly, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) hospital, Shantinagar, caters exclusively to sanitary workers; KSRTC hospital, Jayanagar, for transport workers and hospital for City Armed Reserve, Mysore Road, for low income police personnel and their families free of cost.

However, Dr Pandurangi revealed that there are no monitoring or supervision system. As a result, proper services are not given to these poor workers. “There are high incidences of hypertension, diabetes, diabetic retinopathy, muscular skeletal disorder and counselling on healthy lifestyle. And, 47 per cent fall under preventive measures. If we focus on this group, we can stop their condition from become a tertiary or superspeciality care cases," he said. He also believed that once the Health Commission was set up, not only would these health centres be monitored but free medical treatment could also be extended to slum areas as well.