KOCHI: "The challenge faced by modern hospital managements is making sure a larger number of people have access to what hospitals like Amrita offer by way of expertise in healthcare," Dr Prem Nair, medical director, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, has said. He was speaking at CONCETTO 2018, an international conference on healthcare and hospital management, held at AIMS here on Saturday. The need of the hour was "affordability" of medical treatment, reiterated Prem Nair.
The conference, highlighting the theme of ‘together let’s connect for health,’ focused on the changing trends, continuous healthcare quality assurance and ensuring sustainable and affordable healthcare. The New Indian Express Resident Editor (Kerala) Vinod Mathew Jacob highlighted the rising cost of healthcare and the need to subsidise the cost of treatment without compromising on the quality of care by partnering with centres of excellence under a public-private partnership model.
"The Kerala Government has really raised the standards of our district and general hospitals with the most modern medical equipment available in the state. But it’s a tall ask for the government to set up centres of medical excellence since many of such centres like Amrita already exist. Perhaps the best way forward would be for the state government to subsidise the cost of treatment in such hospitals, thereby making available the latest treatment regime to the common people," Vinod Mathew said while delivering the keynote note address as the chief guest of the function.
Dr Sanjeev Singh, chief medical superintendent, AIMS, welcomed the gathering. Dr Dinesh Nair, hospital administrator and HOD-MHA programme, AIMS, proposed the vote of thanks. Among the topics discussed were ‘Artificial intelligence and its application in healthcare,’ Building a measurement system for an improvement that works,’ ‘Effective plans and decisions: USP for new age hospitals,’ ‘Cost of care - a case of acute care?’
The conference was attended by Dr Arun Keepanasseril, research and data operations, McMaster University, Dr Abha Mehndiratta , director, Institute of Healthcare Improvement, Dr Narayan Pendse, associate vice-president, Fortis Healthcare, Dr Clive Fernandes, clinical director, Wockhardt Hospital group, Ratan Jalan, consulting founder, Medium Healthcare.