Zee JLF 2018 | Healthcare system is under 'critical' unit

Though India's broken healthcare system needs critical care, it has made remarkable progress in certain key areas. "In emergency care, the country has made remarkable progress that deserves to be emulated by developed western countries," said William A Haseltine, the author of 'Every Second Counts: India's Emergency Response System'. Haseltine and Dr Siddhartha Bhattacharya were the panelists at the ZEE Literature Festival session titled Innovations in Health Care: The India Example. Since the launch of the free emergency services 11 years ago in Andhra Pradesh, this effective public-private partnership model has been replicated in different parts of the country by the Central government. "It has saved two million lives in situations where every second counts and has impacted the lives of 750 million people," said Haseltine.

The Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI), runs the mammoth operation with clinical precision with the help of information technology to gather and disseminate information on a real time basis. "There are now 3 lakh trained volunteers across India," says Bhattacharya.

However, this success model shouldn't take away the spotlight from some real issues such as how the pollution in the Ganges is affecting people's health in downstream states. In the session titled River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India's Future, which is also the name of the book that Victor Mallet wrote, the author urged the government to tackle the issue of industrial effluents and untreated waste that are pouring into the river. " A huge section of the population, mostly children are affected by waterborne diseases but this situation is entirely preventable," said Mallet who has intimately studied the river.