PPP Approach is Crucial for Healthy Children: Apollo’s Shobana Kamineni

Public-private partnership is crucial to provide a healthy and happy childhood in a developing country like India, according to Shobana Kamineni, Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group. She was speaking at the two-day National Cradle Conference, organized here by Apollo Cradle in association with the National Neonatology Foundation, Pediatric Academy of Telangana, and Obstetrics & Gynecological Society of Hyderabad. The various initiatives undertaken by the Government, such as medical insurance under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, and establishment of 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers across the country, will give tremendous impetus to mother and child care, she added. Apollo has so far done over 1.5 lakh deliveries, and continues to care for each mother and baby, she said.

Disease threat

According to Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Group, 70 percent of deaths by 2030 will be due to non-communicable diseases, which are a major threat. “It will have a huge economic cost of USD 30 trillion for the world, and India too will also be impacted, as it would cost it (the country) USD 5 trillion,” he said. The biggest healthcare concern in India has been the high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), though it has declined to 130 deaths per 100,000 women giving birth in 2014-16, from the dismal 335 in 2005-06, according to National Family Health Survey. There is lot more to do in this regard, say experts. – The Hindu BusinessLine