From The Hindu

Devi Prasad Shetty spoke on ways to make healthcare affordable

Founder of Narayana Health, Bengaluru, Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty was awarded the Dr. Ida S. Scudder Humanitarian Oration at a function got up at the Christian Medical College here on Friday.

Delivering the Oration, Dr. Shetty elaborated on the many ways in which Narayana Health had made healthcare affordable. The 7.2-trillion dollar healthcare industry was catering to a mere 20% of the affected population. The rest died gradually due to non-affordability of treatment, creating the highest number of widows in the country.

He said that one of the innovative measures introduced by him to cut down the cost of life-saving surgeries was the micro insurance scheme. This scheme, which requires the farmers to invest a mere Rs.5 per month had revolutionised the health care scenario in Karnataka.

Dr. Sunil T. Chandy, Director, CMC, presented the citation to Dr. Shetty. Dr. Sanjeeth Peter, Vice-Chairman of the CMC Council and Association read out the citation.

According to the citation read out in his honour, Dr. Shetty who founded the Narayana Hrudayalaya as a 235-bedded cardiac hospital on the outskirts of Bengaluru in 2000 had the mission to drive down the cost of health care through leveraging economies of scale and technology. From the beginning, Dr. Shetty and his team pioneered the concept of a ‘Health City’: a 2000-5000 bedded conglomeration of multiple super speciality hospitals on a single campus. The concentration of healthcare resources and high volumes enable health cities to provide affordable health care to thousands.

Following the successful model of Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City in Bengaluru, the Group now manages existing and upcoming health cities in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad and other cities. It also operates super speciality hospitals such as the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Kolkata.

To reflect its concern with ever increasing breadths of medical needs and specialities, the group was rebranded ‘Narayana Health’ in 2013. The Group is now one of the largest and most economical health providers in the world, having almost 6500 beds in a network of 32 speciality and super speciality hospitals in 20 locations. They have established a Health City in Cayman Islands following the same model, and have plans to spread to many other cities in India.

Pointing out that Dr. Shetty’s mission is to make healthcare affordable to the poor in the third world countries, the citation stated that like Dr. Ida Scudder, founder of the CMC Hospital, he has focussed on children and families with tireless efforts not only to treat them personally but also to create a network of facilities and trained doctors to reach thousands not only in India but also in Cayman Islands.

IMAGE:
Dr. Sunil T. Chandy, Director, CMC (left), presents the Dr. Ida Scudder Humanitarian Oration Award to Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, founder and chairman of Narayana Health at the CMC campus in Vellore on Friday.— Photo: Special Arrangement

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