AHPI focused on making healthcare sector ‘pink’

It is organising a first-of-itskind two-day global conclave in the city beginning February 10 to discuss, deliberate and lay out a roadmap that is aimed at making affordable healthcare a reality.

In 2015, when the TN Chapter of AHPI sounded all the private hospitals to meet to take stock of the healthcare scenario, less than 10 hospitals turned up. But thereon, an issue which gained “80 per cent” closure by efficient handling by AHPI had an impact that led to 40 more hospitals coming to the next meeting organised four months later, D Rambabu, GM at Vijaya Group of Hospitals, Secretary, AHPI, said. 

Two years later, with a purpose of working as a contributor rather than a competitor has aligned several like-minded healthcare providers to join the AHPI, which has right now 12,000-plus members in its fold. “Rather than working in silos, for the first time we are looking beyond hospitals and come together. We are exploring even the downstream opportunities. Imagine, 40 mission hospitals, 100 community hospitals, 10 corporate hospitals and 30 mid-level hospitals coming together keeping service as the focus. We see AHPI as a socially-responsible group of providers who have the ability to partner with various key players including decision-makers and policy makers as we see ourselves as service providers interested in customer-satisfaction and patient welfare,” chipped in Sameer Mehta, AHPI Treasurer and also the CEO of Dr Mehta’s Hospitals. 

But given the huge variations in charges among the hospitals, would AHPI make any attempt to bring parity as far as cost and services are concerned? Dr S Gurushankar, President, AHPI – TN Chapter says: “Integrated care is the future as the current healthcare system is highly fragmented and lacks synergy between different groups involved in patient care. By focusing on a patient’s overall well-being, rejecting the mind-body dualism, and taking a more comprehensive approach, it delivers far better outcomes through higher-quality, more efficient care and re duced costs. Integrated care is going to become even more important as population ages and the incidence of chronic diseases rises. The 4th AHPI Conclave is bringing together some of South India’s top thought leaders in healthcare under one roof. They will explore all aspects of integrated care and attempt to present a model by which Universal Health Coverage and Integrated Care would be made possible within the existing resources in India.” 

Venkat Phanidhar, Joint Secretary, AHPI and Co-founder, Goclinix, says “there is a general perception that cost drives quality of healthcare. But being able to consistently provide quality care and the ability to sustain it will bring down the expenses. Healthcare is still unorganised and our focus is to take steps at the grassroots level and we propose to have AHPI operations at district level.”