Right to Primary & Preventive Care

August 10th , 2011

Dr.Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister

Government of India

7, Race Course , New Delhi 110001

Subject: Right to Primary & Preventive Care

Dear Dr.Singh,

 

Greetings from the Disease Management Association of India – DMAI, The Population Health Improvement Alliance .

 

DMAI – The Population Health Improvement Alliance is a not-for-profit organization formed by global healthcare leaders. It is the only civil society organization in India dedicated to chronic disease management in the country, with an objective of overall population health improvement .In the past three years , DMAI has worked at both International level and within India to address the issue of India’s healthcare challenges,  with the support of  patient groups , Industry & policy makers , and wishes to put on record the continuous support DMAI has received from policy makers and the industry .

 

Your government has been behind some key initiatives like

 

Right to information Act

Right to Education

Right to Work / Employment

Right to Food

 

I wish to draw your kind attention to consider enacting, the ‘Right to Primary & Preventive care’ for all citizens of this country, before it gets too late !

 

The nation is burdened by ‘a catastrophic disaster in slow motion’, moving towards it in the form of a huge population suffering from Life threatening diseases / disorders ( LTD’s ) or Debilitating Chronic Disorders- ( DCD’s ); what is today called the NCD’s ( Non communicable diseases ) .

 

We are already facing an acute shortage of both, hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure in healthcare delivery , and with our current ‘Baby Boomers’ becoming ‘Patient Boomers’ in the next 15-25 years , we could lose our competitiveness & productivity by over 50 % . India  in 2025 , with over 1.40 Billion population and with over 600 million LTD / DCD patients

would be a burden for the human race if we fail to adopt the Right to Primary & Preventive care, as the basic right for all citizens .

 

I must also state an electoral reason to accomplish this very important act . It is not just the US that fought the last elections on issue of Healthcare reform , but back home,  Andhra Pradesh and Assam are examples of how healthcare schemes can be a deciding factor for the public to choose who will run their government and so, lets get this ‘Right to Primary & Preventive care’ implemented at the earliest possible.  My detailed note on healthcare reforms agenda available at the DMAI website ( www.dmai.org.in ) , has the details of what could be potentially done in this area . It has to be multi-sectoral and inter ministerial effort & I am sure that this act with vast social & economic implications will be the best thing to do in healthcare !

 

Also, to keep you posted , I am working on the Chronic Care Bill & the Child Health bill . If all goes as per plan , the draft of these documents will be submitted to the policy makers by end of September 2011

 

Hoping for a positive response from a responsible government on the ‘Right to Primary & Preventive care !

 

We remain at your disposal for any help / assistance that you might need on this matter of great national interest

 

Yours Sincerely

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

president@dmai.org.in

 

H.E. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General , United Nations

H.E. Joseph Diess , President of the UN General Assembly

Hon’ble Deputy Secretary General of the UN General Assembly

Ms. Margaret Chan, Director General, WHO

Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad , Hon’ble Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GOI

Dr.K. Srinath Reddy , President , PHFI

Dr.Syeda Hameed, Planning Commission , GOI

Sri Sudip Bandopadhyay, MOS- H&FW

Shri K.Chandramouli, Secretary , H&FW , GOI.

K.Desiraju, Additional Secretary , Government of India.

Dr.Sudhir Gupta , CMO, NCD’s. MOHFW.

Board Of Directors , Disease Management Association of India – DMAI , The Population Health Improvement Alliance .