HYDERABAD: Doctors and nurses visiting patients’ homes to provide treatment at home, instead of patients taking the pain of going all the way to hospitals, may become the norm soon, as home health care services segment is slowly but steadily catching up with people.
With busy lifestyle making ‘care givers’ and ‘time’ a huge constraint, many people who can afford are opting for health care services at home now-a-days.
“We felt relieved when we could get a nurse who can look after our mother, cured from cancer, at our home. It was very difficult to take mother to hospital for tests every week, but thanks to ‘home health care services’ even tests are done at home by visiting doctors thereby alleviating need for visits to hospitals and also saving mother from undue strain,” said T Indraneel, an NRI, who had arranged for all the needed health care for his mother at home.
With most of the present generation being ‘working couple’ there is a great demand for home health care providers for the elderly. Not just in case of elderly but in case of patients requiring post-operative care, those requiring diagnostics tests, physiotherapy, among others, are also finding home health care service a better option due to the convenience.
As a result hospitals and companies offering home health care service are increasing rapidly. There are about three to five big players and about 50 small companies in ‘home health care services’ segment in India. These companies offer a wide range of health care from simple diagnoses like diabetes, BP, Blood tests to services like physiotherapy, bedside assistance and nursing care to intensive care, at home itself.
‘’We have come across patients who been completely cured at home with the assistance from our doctors and nurses team. We have even arranged home-based Intensive Care Units (ICUs), oxygen concentrators, among other advanced devices at home. Till now we have cured more than 500 patients with different illnesses at homes. Home based health care will be the future as it is both convenient and affordable for patients,’’ Dr Mahesh Joshi, chief executive officer of Apollo Homecare, said.
Till now Apollo Hospitals has been providing health care services only to their patients on request. But sensing the growing need and potential for home health care segment in India, Apollo Hospitals launched Apollo Homecare on Saturday in Hyderabad.
Initially Apollo Homecare will offer healthcare services at home in Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi and will expand to 13 more cities in the next 15 months. It will offer elderly care, chronic illness care, post surgery care, hospital discharge care and home specialty care.
There are about 11 crore elderly population in India today and it will increase to 33 crore in 2050. Among these population those who can spend between Rs 20,000 to 30,000 per month will find it affordable to opt home health care services.
Doctors Lay Stress on Awareness of Bone Cancer
Dr. Kishore Bhavanam Reddy, musculoskeletal surgical oncologist at American Oncology Institute (AOI) explains about the importance of re-implantation surgery in treating complex bone cancers in an interview. He stresses on the need for awareness on bone cancers as they are mostly overlooked, thus creating problems at advanced stages.
What is re-implantation surgery?
Re-implantation surgery is a surgical procedure in which if a bone if affected with cancer, will be initially cut from the body and after administering radiation, will be again joined with corresponding bone in the body. As a result of re-implantation surgery, a cancer-affected body part will be saved from amputating.
How is it done?
Advances in medical care and technologies are making it possible. Re-implantation surgery is done using ‘prosthesis’. As a result even after cutting and joining the bones body parts will appear and function as original. But they will appear slightly shorter than before.
In which cases is re-implantation surgery useful?
Re-implantation surgery is useful in cases of trauma, accidents and in treating bone cancers. Of late with rise in cancer cases, re-implantation surgery is extensively used in curing bone cancers. Recently we have saved a 18-year-old patient suffering from bone cancer, by successfully removing the cancerous part of his forearm and re-implanting his hand.
How prevalent are bone cancers today?
With all forms of cancers increasing, even bone cancers are rising. While primary bone cancers are rare, secondary bone cancers - cancers which spread to bones from other parts - are on the rise.
What needs to be done to control bone cancers?
Lot of awareness has to be created among people about bone cancer. Also any deformity, swelling, pain in the bones should not be neglected.