World Business

By combining tech knowhow with government funds, Andhra Pradesh state is creating the most far-reaching program in the world to deliver medical services to the masses

through Steve Hamm

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Dr. Abhijeet Dashetwar, head of the cardiac branch at government-run Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad, India, stands in the centre of a cardiac object of care center under construction and points to where cutting-edge monitoring systems will be installed. A just discovered government health-care insurance program for the poor administered by private carrier Star Health and Allied Insurance made it practicable for the hospital to pay for the $600,000 upgrade. The old cordial center, with merited eight beds, shared operating rooms with other departments; the new one will have 15 beds and three operating rooms. "Finally we have power to afford the equipment we need," Dashetwar says.

The insurance is part of a multi-faceted initiative in the state of Andhra Pradesh called Aarogyasri (which means wellness or health in several Indian languages) that government leaders claim is the most far-reaching program in the world providing health care for the poor. In partnership with private industry and foundations, the body of executive officers of this state of 80 the multitude people is offering a new emergency communication arrangement, ambulance services, a call center with regard to advising people on their freedom from disease heed, and more than 100 vans that give by will go into remote villages to educate people and provide testing and inoculations.

The initiative is ambitious. About 10 the masses people qualify on this account that the program that provides health assurance, and the mobile health program will reach about 40 million. The entire Andhra Pradesh population of 80 million is eligible to regard existence served by the exigency response body. "We’re in the lead not only in India, but in the whole world in delivering hale condition care for the poor," declares P.K. Agarwal, the health scribe for Andhra Pradesh.

The newest piece of the initiative, the mobile health vans, was officially launched on Aug. 22 in Hyderabad, the pass capital, by dint of. Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy, and B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, one of India’s largest technology outsourcing firms. Two foundations that Raju establish up are providing the management, stay, and facilities for all of the services except assurance.

For Raju, the notice is an endorsement of his strategy (BusinessWeek.com, 12/7/06) of bringing the skills of India’s vaunted tech assiduity to bear on the nation’s deep social problems. He has recruited executives from Indian corporations and multinationals to set up and oversee operations that in developed nations are normally handled by the powers that be. Raju believes that by combining business knowhow with government funds—and material the funds go much further—it’s possible to deliver quality health care for the masses. "I have no doubt that this will have existence a model for the rest of the world," he says.

Not everybody is a fan. Jayaprakash Narayan, president of the Lok Satta Party, a new reform political party in India, approves of the emergency curative and health information services end finds fault with the insurance program. Similar to Medicaid in the U.S., it provides free hospital treatment for rabble under the poverty line for major diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Narayan believes that the insurance program is wrongly conceived because, he says, it provides expensive surgery for a relatively small number of patients and fails to address the again routine and deterrent health-care of necessity of the masses.

"What India needs is a robust public-private association with a focus upon preventive, primary, and secondary care," he says. "The accent should be on low-cost, high-impact interventions." Narayan says the two services backed by Raju, the emergency response use and the health-care advice service, add a lot of value and are require to be paid effective only are not a substitute for a broader-based health-care delivery classification.