“COVID-19 has surfaced as a wake-up call for each one of us to not look at the Indian health system in silos, but rather as an entire continuum of care where both public and private sector can collaborate as one to bring synergy and strengthen the healthcare,” said Varun Jhaveri, Officer on Special Duty to the CEO, National Health Authority, Government of India in a panel discussion organized by the Healthcare Management team at the leading B-school Goa Institute of Management (GIM) on ‘The Role of Private Health Sector in a Public Health Emergency: Experiences and Lessons from COVID-19’ earlier this month.
The session as moderated by Dr Kheya Furtado (assistant professor, GIM) and other spokespersons included industry stakeholders who spoke on contributions, initiatives and innovations taken up by healthcare organizations in response to the public health crisis of Covid-19. The live webinar was held in collaboration with Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Others who featured in the webinar included Inovaccer which has launched India’s first self-testing COVID app along with government of Goa, followed by government of Puducherry, to capture the essence of digitization of health. Sachin Saxena (director, marketing, Innovaccer) threw light on the growing trend of virtual care and tele consultation in these times, saying “Covid-19 is actually the catalyst to change.”
Kaustav Banerjee (vice-president, South Asia, Zimmer Biomet) while talking about several challenges said, “Covid (has) built a huge stress on the entire system with shortage of physicians and nurses as they were getting infected by the virus, unwillingness of patients to step into hospitals- resulting in low OPD footfalls, non-availability of flights, operating costs going up and increased costs for uninterrupted supply chain movement, all with the obligation to ensure patient’s safety at all costs.” Dr Sajjan Rajpurohit (senior consultant, Medical Oncology, Max Group of Hospitals) threw light on initiatives taken up by Max Hospitals right from labeling two of their major hospitals as Covid hospitals during the early phase to ensuring designated Covid wards and increased capacity to handle patients in order to decrease people’s fear of visiting hospitals during these tough times.
The pharmaceutical sector’s perspective was presented by Manoj Kumar (senior vice-president of Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd) threw light on how we are witnessing a rapid need for various drugs that were otherwise usually kept in cold storages, while mentioning the commendable collaboration of various stakeholders within the pharmaceutical industry to ensure availability of chronic supplies at all times. He also talked about the increased level of awareness among people for healthcare, along with a shift in investing into prevention.
Sanjay Sonar discussed the importance of intelligent supply chain and how the switch from convention supply chain to digital supply chain has impacted in positive transformation of the health sector, especially during the lockdown. Varun highlighted the efforts of the government in augmenting facilities for both testing and treatment for Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY beneficiaries, by empaneling more hospitals and private testing labs and constantly monitoring the same in order to focus on both patients and providers.
Altogether the panel of speakers concluded that learning from the Covid-19 pandemic should not be limited just to the pandemic but how it can transform our health systems for the better for a healthier and happier population.

CM, HEALTH MINISTER, BRIEF GOVERNOR ON COVID-19

Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Chief Secretary Parimal Rai (IAS) and Health Secretary Nila Mohanan (IAS) called on the Governor Satya Pal Malik today to brief him about the current COVID-19 situation in the State of Goa. The latest statistics were presented to the Governor, along with the analysis of the figures regarding testing rate, recovery rate, positivity rate and mortality rate.
The arrangements put in place in terms of clinical management, food, housekeeping and other facilities at the Covid hospital and the Covid Care Centres were outlined. The containment strategy put in place by the Collectors in the containment and micro-containment zones of both districts was described along with the arrangements for the supply of essential items to the people residing in such zones. The initiatives taken by the Health Department in setting up testing facilities, procuring the medicines recently recommended by ICMR and operationalizing the plasma bank and making preparations for plasma therapy were brought out.
Parimal Rai briefed the governor about the co-ordination and monitoring mechanism put in place through daily war room meetings of the State Executive Committee of the State Disaster Management Authority.
Vishwajit Rane highlighted the efforts of the Health Department to enhance the infrastructure and equipment for managing Covid-19 in the State. The CM spoke about the various measures taken and incentives offered by the State government for economic revival.
The governor appreciated the constant and dedicated efforts taken by the State government to combat the Covid- 19 situation. He stated that strict vigil should be maintained throughout the State and awareness should continue to be created amongst the public about the safety protocol (use of masks, sanitizers, maintaining social distance, etc.) to be followed and about timely reporting of any symptoms to the Health Department.