The government is in the process of drafting a National Health Policy to meet the rising demand for sustainable healthcare across the country, said Lov Verma, Secretary- Health & Family Welfare, at 'FICCI Heal 2014'.
Verma said that new systems will be put in place in the National Health Policy and the government may even consider setting up an Innovation Health Fund. He also urged the industry to compile the best practices and innovations of the industry and submit it to the Ministry for consideration.
Speaking on various government innovations, Verma said that the colour coded linen in hospitals is a simple method of differentiating various linen, hence reducing the risk of cross-infection.
The coding should be followed by hospitals right up to district level healthcare centres, he suggested.
Ayush is another initiative of the government which has potential but has not been utilized to its full capacity till now. There is great scope for popularizing alternative medicine and mainstreaming it with general medicine, he added.
The Secretary also dwelt on the importance of electronic health records (EHRs) and thanked FICCI for supporting the government in this initiative. He urged the private and public sector to join hands and make the EHRs drive a success story across the country. Patient transport system and mobile medical unit are other efforts of the government to make healthcare accessible in remote areas.
A Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI, said, "We propose to create a virtual pooling of industry CSR funds by creating IISH (Indian Industry in Solidarity for Health) Kosh to channelize funds into priority area in healthcare identified by the government. FICCI Health Services Committee is keen to work with the Health Ministry to develop a directory of healthcare activities based on the priorities of the government so that the CSR funds are channelized in the right direction to support National Health Assurance mandate of the government."