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People in Andhra Pradesh will soon get commonly used drugs at just 10 per cent of the cost. The State Government is going to make it mandatory for all pharmacies to sell these drugs on prescriptions. The doctors on their part, should give an option of generic drugs to patients as they write prescriptions.
Jeevan Dhan pharmacy stores
Besides, the State Government would open more Jeevan Dhan pharmacy stores across the State to come out with a similar offering, according to Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing a gathering at the international conferences on ‘Patient Safety and Healthcare IT' here on Friday, he said the Government would take measures to increase the share of public hospitals in the general health insurance scheme, Arogyasri. “We would like to increase its share to 40 per cent from 22 per cent,” he said.
Stating that it would take up to Rs 50-70 lakh, respectively, to create a hospital bed in the private sector, he said the Government could use this costly infrastructure to serve the needy through the insurance scheme. “Of the 30,000 beds it has, the private sector set apart 12,000 beds for the scheme that is meant for the poor,” he said.
Denying the criticism that the scheme was aimed at aiding corporate hospitals, he said the State will touch the 10-lakh surgeries mark soon at an annual spend of Rs 2,800 crore.
Meanwhile, Apollo Hospitals group, which organised the conference, instituted winners of the maiden Dr Prathap C Reddy's Safe Care awards for 2011.
Fortis has won the award for ‘Infection Control Initiative Award' for implementation of VAP Bundles for Reduction of VAP. The winners with names of the award in brackets are: Al Tawam Hospital of Dubai (Patient Safety Initiative), Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences of Thiruvanathapuram (Medication Safety Initiative) and Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital of Chennai won ‘Special Mention Award' for efforts to prevent patient falls.
The conference also saw presentation of NASSCOM-KPMG Healthcare IT Awards 2011. Mr Rahul Chatterjee of Siemens IT Solutions & Services received ‘Best Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) Solution,' while Mr Sampath Kumar and Mr Sandeep Jain of Sankara Nethrayala and TCS won the award in the ‘Best Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Solution' category.
Dr Balaji Utla and Mr Srinivas Anumanchi of Health Management & Research Institute (HMRI) received the award for creating ‘Best IT Solution for Healthcare Inclusion.'
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