From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Dec 17: Healthcare should move away from being doctor-centric and become patient-centric and also transform from hospital-centric to home-centric, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said in Bengaluru on Saturday.

He further stressed on healthcare being focused on ‘4 Ps’ - Personalized, predictive, Preventive and participatory - he added that we must move away from the ‘5th P’ which is pills.

Speaking at the PHANA’s 3rd National Health Summit, Dr Sudhakar said in the current world, there is a massive rise in new technology such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. There are new tools that allow us to make incredibly accurate diagnoses which will help provide effective treatment in a timely manner. The Minister urged PHANA to work towards ensuring healthcare is affordable, accessible, and available.

He further pointed out that a few private hospital chains lack adequate transparency. “I urge PHANA to look into this issue to ensure that digital medical records are made available to the government. This is because, unless we have adequate data, the government cannot come up with effective health programs both at the state and national levels,” he said.

NCDs are a big threat
“Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are a big threat and every 4th person has diabetes today. We are seeing a rise in NCDs such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer are on the rise. This is the reason Karnataka has taken up the task of doing mass screenings to develop a data pool. As of now, we have screened 60% of the population for NCDs,” the Minister said.

Karnataka can only become a wealthy state if we become a healthy state. This is a task we will have to achieve together. We from the government are ready to provide all the necessary support for this. We will take measures to curb red-tapism as we firmly believe in promoting ease of doing business, he said. ``Large hospital chains are growing currently, but what I would like to see is mid-sized hospitals that have a capacity of around 100 beds to grow. I understand there are some bottlenecks such as annual renewals. I will try to make it a single-window process and increase the time period to three years,’’ he said.

Prevention-oriented approach is necessary to improve the healthcare system. For this, more awareness needs to be created among the people. Additionally, everyone should co-operate in the collection of statistics on non-communicable diseases, Dr Sudhakar said.

Awareness and preventive measures are necessary to improve the health system further. Information, education, and communication will benefit people more. Although Karnataka has progressed in health, it lags behind in maternal mortality and infant mortality. Awareness programs are necessary for this, the Minister said. More than 8,000 health and wellness centers have been opened in the state. Non- communicable disease screening has been increased in these centers. By this accurate data related to NCDs is being collected. Doctors should also cooperate in the collection of correct data. Many people do not realize how important activities like exercise, walking etc. are and diabetes is on the rise due to this, Minister Sudhakar said.

Lack of sleep, regular exercise and a good diet can lead to diabetes. It is very sad that India is now the epicenter of diabetes and we have earned the infamous reputation of being called the diabetes capital of the world. In the modern world, there has been a great change in the diet. Although we are seeing a development, if we look at it from the health point of view, it seems that we are moving backward.

He said the fact that the life expectancy is now more than 60 years shows the progress made in health infrastructure.

``But how well we live is more important than how long we live. If you live on dialysis for 10 more years, would you be able to consider it a positive development? The number of dialysis cycles has increased from 30,000 to 60,0000 per day in government hospitals. More than 1 lakh processes are going on if private hospitals are also included. This is an alarming number. Due to all these reasons, priority has been given to the management of non-communicable diseases, the Minister said.

Neurological Disorders big burden:
Neurological disorders contribute to almost 70% of the burden of disability in childhood and could result in becoming a threat to the development of our country, Dr Sudhakar said.

Mental Health issues and Non Communicable diseases are on the rise due to current food habits, lifestyle and sleep patterns. We now see that among all age groups from youngsters to adults to senior citizens, we are seeing a lot of mental health issues. Due to this, the quality of life is severely affected, Minister Sudhakar added. Speaking at the inauguration of the 3rd Indian National Conference of COMHAD, Dr Sudhakar said mental health care is an extremely important part of any health care system.

“The burden of neurological issues is ever-increasing in India and could become a threat to the growth and development of our country, both economically and socially. There is a rise in mental health and neurological issues including dementia, paralyzing stroke, epilepsy etc. We will need to create awareness about these issues starting from school children to working professionals. Neurological disorders contribute to almost 70% of the burden of disability in childhood,” he said.

“Our state government has taken this up very passionately and we have developed the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model in association with NIMHANS. What this means is that NIMHANS will act as a hub and the PHCs in all districts will act as spokes to work together to address the increasing mental health issues. We are trying to train MBBS doctors at the PHCs to diagnose and counsel patients with mental health needs,” said Dr Sudhakar.