Health Sector

World Homeopathy Day 2023: History, Importance, Theme of this year

Homoeopathy is a 200-year-old and another form of medicine that claims to boost the body's ability to heal itself and stimulate a healing response

Thousands of doctors plan to walk off job again in England next week

A four-day strike planned by tens of thousands of doctors in England next week could lead to the postponement of a quarter-million medical appointments, a National Health Service official said Saturday. Dr. Layla McCay, policy director at the NHS Confederation, said the impact is expected to be far greater than a three-day walkout last month by doctors early in their career that led to 175,000 appointments and procedures being postponed. The impact is going to be so significant that this one is likely to have impact on patient safety, and that is a huge concern for every health care leader, McCay told BBC Radio 4. The strike planned for Tuesday by so-called junior doctors would be the latest in a wave of disruptive labour actions by public sector workers demanding pay hikes to offset inflation that exceeds 10%. A cost-of-living crisis driven by sharp food and energy price increases has left people struggling to pay bills as union wages have fallen in real terms over the past ...

Daily Covid cases cross 6000-mark in India, positivity rate at 3.39%

India has logged 6,050 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest in 203 days, while the active cases have increased to 28,303, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday. On September 16 last year, 6,298 cases were recorded. The death toll has increased to 5,30,943 with 14 deaths -- three reported from Maharashtra, two each from Karnataka and Rajasthan, one each from Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, and one was reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 3.39 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 3.02 per cent, it said. The total tally of Covid cases stands at 4.47 crore (4,47,45,104) The active cases now comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate has been recorded at 98.75 per cent, according to the health ministry's website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,41,85,858, while the c

UK's Health board to recruit 900 overseas nurses, mostly Indians: Report

A local health board in the UK could be recruiting as many as 900 nurses, mostly from Kerala, in the course of next four years to address workforce shortages

Goa's health sector's achievements showcased before G20 meeting

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in partnership with the Goa government showcased the health infrastructure in the state ahead of the G20 Working Group meeting that is scheduled to be held in the coastal state from April 17 to 19. The organisers of the meeting said the health facilities being provided at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Panaji are exceptional. "India's G20 Presidency has identified three priorities in the health track, namely health emergencies prevention and preparedness; strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector and digital health innovation and solutions," they said. The organisers showcased India's achievements in digital health Innovations, such as the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission at PHC Corlim and the technological innovation under the Swasth Mahila Swasth Goa program presented through the iBreast Device, an initiative supported by YouWeCan, founded by former cricketer Yuvraj Singh, that aids breast

For many years after Independence, there was no vision in health sector: PM

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday claimed that for several decades after Independence, there was a lack of an integrated approach and long term vision in the health sector

India trying to reduce dependence on foreign countries in health sector: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that life-savers like medicines, vaccines and medical devices were weaponised during the COVID-19 pandemic, and asserted that his government has been consistently trying to minimise India's dependence on foreign countries in the health sector. Addressing a post-budget webinar on 'Health and Medical Research', Modi said India's health sector was marred by a lack of integrated approach and long-term vision for decades but his government has not confined it to the health ministry alone and has dealt with it with the "whole of government" outlook. Our entrepreneurs should ensure India doesn't have to import any technology and becomes self-reliant, he said, highlighting various measures taken by his government to boost entrepreneurship in the field. The prime minister said making treatment affordable has been a top priority, adding that the 'Ayushman Bharat', a government health insurance scheme, and 'Jan Aushadhi' centres, where medicines are

Ahead of World Birth Defects Day, WHO calls to strengthen health systems

Ahead of this year's World Birth Defects Day, the WHO has urged countries, especially in the South-East Asia Region, to strengthen their health systems to prevent and respond to birth defects -- structural or functional anomalies a baby develops in the mother's body. World Birth Defects Day is observed on March 3 to raise awareness on birth defects surveillance, prevention and management. An estimated 8 million newborns suffer from birth defects annually worldwide. Nine out of every 10 children born with a serious birth defect are in low- and middle-income countries, said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South-East Asia. In South-East Asia Region, birth defects are the third-most common cause of child mortality and the fourth-most common cause of neonatal mortality, accounting for 12 per cent of all neonatal deaths, she said. She said that birth defects increased as a proportion of child mortality in the region, from 6.2 per cent to 9.2 per cent between 2010 and ..

Piramal Pharma reports consolidated net loss of Rs 90 crore in Q3

Piramal Pharma on Thursday reported a net loss of Rs 90 crore on a consolidated basis for the third quarter ended December 31, 2022. The Mumbai-based company had reported a net profit of Rs 163 crore in the October-December quarter of last fiscal. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,716 crore for the third quarter, while the same was at Rs 1,539 crore in the year-ago period. The company said the third quarter results were not comparable to the same period last year as the NCLT in August 12, 2022 approved the composite scheme of demerger of the pharma business from Piramal Enterprises Ltd (PEL) into Piramal Pharma Ltd. The NCLT also approved amalgamation of Piramal Pharma's wholly-owned subsidiaries Hemmo Pharmaceuticals and Convergence Chemical into itself with an appointed date of April 1, 2022. Accordingly, the financial statements of Piramal Pharma have been prepared giving effect to the scheme from April 1, 2022. "Based on our recent increase in customer engagements and ...

More funds for social sector in Budget: Pain points & what's on offer

Health spending dipped in 2022-23

Health and employment: Union Budget's skilling push for job-ready youth

STEPPING UP: PMKVY 4.0, Unified Skill India Platform and stipend for apprentices

Budget 2023: Healthcare sector needs eco-system for infra, say experts

After Covid pandemic hit world three years ago, healthcare sector has become central for 2023 budget as industry awaits the Centre's intervention to make healthcare affordable and accessible to all

Digitisation giving big boost to healthcare, medical education: Mandaviya

The minister also said that there is no risk of data theft in digitisation of medical records of Indian citizens

Over 100 mn records linked digitally to Ayushman Bharat Health Account

Over 300 million citizens have generated their unique Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts (ABHA) so far

2022: When India learnt to live with Covid as the virus eased its grip

The health sector returned to the old normal; the advice for 2023 is 'watchfulness and appropriate response'

Living with Covid phase: UK to stop publishing infections data in New Year

The UK health authorities said on Monday that they will stop publishing their regular COVID-19 infections modelling data in the new year because it is seen as no longer necessary as the country moves to a phase of living with the virus with the help of vaccines and medicines. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that it will continue to monitor COVID like other common viral illnesses such as seasonal flu. Since April this year, the data on the reproductive rate, or the R value speed at which the novel coronavirus infects people, has been published fortnightly as a monitoring tool. During the pandemic, the R value and growth rate served as a useful and simple indicator to inform public health action and government decisions, said Dr Nick Watkins, chair of the UKHSA Epidemiology Modelling Review Group (EMRG). Now that vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase where we are living with COVID-19, with surveillance scaled down but still closely monitored through a

Mock drill in UP hospitals, medical colleges to test Covid preparedness

Amid a rise in Covid-19 cases in some countries, UP govt has activated the administrative machinery to test its preparedness

Over 3% of 84,874 drug samples tested in 2020-21 were substandard: Govt

More than three per cent of the 84,874 drug samples tested in 2020-21 were declared not of standard quality and 263 of them were found to be spurious and adulterated, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The data was based on information received from state and Union territory drug controllers and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Pawar said in written reply to a question. Whenever complaints regarding quality of medicines are received, the CDSCO in coordination with state licensing authority takes action according to provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules. Of the total 84,874 drug samples tested in 2020-21, she said, 2,652 samples (3.12 per cent) were declared not of standard quality and 263 samples (0.31 per cent) were declared spurious and adulterated drugs. On whether the government plans to develop an authentication ecosystem to curb the circulation of substandard medicines in the market, Pawar s

Health data not shared with insurance, pharma firms without consent: Govt

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) facilitates secure data exchange between intended stakeholders on its network after the patient's consent and no data is shared with any other entity, including insurance and pharma firms, without the individual's consent, the Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday. Responding to a question on whether patients' health data is shared with insurance and pharmaceutical companies under the Health Data Management (HDM)policy, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the HDM policy is a guidance document which sets out the minimum standards for privacy and data protection that should be followed by all the participants/stakeholders of the ABDM ecosystem. The policy was released on December 14, 2020, by the Ministry of Health. 'Privacy by Design' is one of the key guiding principles of ABDM and implemented following the principles of federated digital architecture, Mandaviya said. "Therefore, there is no centralised repository of data. The ABDM facilitate

BCG can curb severe TB in children but efficacy wanes with time: MoS Health

BCG vaccination can prevent severe forms of tuberculosis in children but its protective efficacy wanes over time, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar informed the Lok Sabha on Friday. The risk of tuberculosis even after vaccination if exposed to the bacteria remains at all ages. However, the infection breaks down to disease if the immunity of the individual is compromised due to various conditions, Pawar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. A new skin test for detecting latent TB infection has been developed by a private agency. This has been validated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and market authorization approval accorded by Drug Controller General of India (DGCI), the minister said in response to a question. To address the challenges and achieve SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) related to TB by 2025, the National TB Elimination programme implements key activities such as state and district specific strategic plans for targeted interventio