With a major focus on promoting ‘Skill India campaign’, the MoU aims to
develop and facilitate worksite wellness programs and training workshops for
Healthcare professionals on chronic diseases across India, especially
prevention of Non Communicable Diseases.
New Delhi:
19 April 2016: With an
aim to augment the Government of India’s ‘Skill India’ flagship project and to create a robust and vibrant
eco-system for quality skill development in the healthcare sector, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) signed
a 5 year memorandum of understanding for launching a joint program to organize
capacity building initiatives in skilling healthcare professionals especially
in the areas of chronic diseases and prevention of Non Communicable Diseases
(NCDs).
The MoU signed by Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber and
Professor K. Srinath Reddy, President, PHFI, will undertake a
country-wide initiatives to conduct training workshops for industry, government
(Central/ State) and MNCs on important public health issues, with a special
focus on Non Communicable Diseases.
In
his address Dr. Mahesh Gupta,
President, PHD Chamber lauded the timing of the MoU and said “The
Indian healthcare sector today is growing at a brisk pace and this MoU comes at
a time when the Skill India Movement is looking at bringing about convergence.
Along with PHFI, a key partner that has already developed capacity building and
academic programmes, PHD Chamber renews its commitment to address the shortage
in human resources in health through this MoU, hence being instrumental in
advocating to corporates sustainable approaches in Indian healthcare sector.”
Pointing out the major constraints faced by
Healthcare professionals, Dr Mahesh Gupta emphasized that this sector in India
is suffering with overworked professionals as there is a severe shortage of
staff. The skill development workshops can be used across India to scale up and
get this workforce to be competent in the healthcare space.
Stressing on the need to upgrade
skills in the Healthcare sector, Prof.
K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) emphasized “The healthcare sector is expected to drive
the growth of the economy as well as play a significant role in employment. In
spite of notable progress and many positive developments, deficiencies in human
resources both in terms of skills and numbers continue to pose a challenge for
healthcare sector, affecting “Universal Health Coverage for All”. This MoU is a
landmark initiative and will provide training on best practices in healthcare
to a large spectrum of professionals in order to improve their employability
and work towards a healthier India.”
According to the most recent figures
reported in the World Health Statistics 2011, the density of doctors in India
is 6 for a population of 10,000, while that of nurses and midwives is 13 per
10,000 population. India has a doctor-to-population ratio of 0.5:1000 in
comparison to 0.3 in Thailand, 0.4 in Sri Lanka, 1.6 in China, 5.4 in the UK,
and 5.5 in the United States of America.
Further the density of practicing
healthcare workforce gets further skewed as almost 25% doctors and 40% nurses
do not practice in the formal health system. Public Health Foundation of India
(PHFI) in its 2012 report estimated a shortage of 6.4 million allied health
professionals in the country. The report highlighted the gap in both; sheer
number of professionals of various specialties as well as the quality of skills
acquired by the graduating students from several hundreds of institutions
across the country.
According
to estimates, The overall Indian healthcare market today is worth US$ 100
billion and is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9 per cent. Healthcare delivery, which includes
hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostics centers, and pharmaceuticals,
constitutes 65 per cent of the overall market. ( Source : IBEF- India Brand
Equity Foundation).
Mr.Nishant Berlia, Chairman, PHD Health
Committee said that there is a significant
scope for enhancing healthcare services considering that healthcare spending as
a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is rising. Rural India, which
accounts for over 70 per cent of the population, is set to emerge as a
potential demand source.
He
added that with a billion-plus population India needs an extensive and vast
healthcare infrastructure and huge trained work force of healthcare
professionals. Despite spurt of new hospitals and medical facilities across the
country, we are still way behind from getting the adequate hospitals and
medical personnel. Currently India has 0.9 beds per 1,000 populations, which is
far below the global average of 2.9 beds. By 2022, it is estimated that India
would require over 27 lakh additional beds. Along with huge dearth of these
regular healthcare services, our country also grossly lacks in emergency
medical response services. In a country where 160,000 people die every year in
road accidents and millions other die due to cardiovascular problems, both
scenarios where emergency medical assistance is required, there are only about
10,000 medical emergency response technicians have been trained since 2005 in
the nation of 1.2 billion. By contrast, the United States has 240,000 for a
population that is a fourth of India’s.
Dr D
Prabhakaran, Vice President (Research and Policy), Public Health Foundation of
India said, “Today there is ample
evidence suggesting that empowered health professionals can be the leaders of
change, playing critical roles in improving the reach of health services
especially in countries like India which has enough challenges in the health
sector. This MoU will not only identify skill-gaps in the healthcare industry,
but will also jointly develop various courses and trainings, to build & upgrade
the capacity of healthcare in the country, ultimately being an innovative
vehicle to achieve the objectives of the National Policy for Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship.”
The MoU will aim and work to develop
and conduct training workshops for Healthcare professionals on chronic diseases
across India and to develop and facilitate worksite wellness programs with
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Heads, particularly for the prevention of
NCDs (Non Communicable Diseases). Training workshops (Training of Trainers)
& Monitoring & Evaluation programs for industry, Govt-Central/ State/
MNC’s/ world bodies in healthcare & associated areas on important issues in
public health will be developed and conducted by PHFI and PHD Chamber.
Through this MoU, PHD Chamber will
work to place the issue of public health on every corporate boardroom agenda.
The focus of Public Health in PHD Chamber is to advocate for curative and
preventive health beyond that of the employees and dependents into the
community and the less privileged ones. The focus areas have been prevention
and management of Non Communicable diseases (NCDs), research, healthcare
innovation etc. among others through projects and programs. Similarly, Public
Health Foundation of India will fortify its mandate to respond to redress the
limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research
and policy development in the area of Public Health, and develop various
capacity building initiatives for primary care physicians in the field of NCDs
and CVD.
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