"We should be developing models of care which are community oriented and public health oriented and get all stakeholders onboard. While specific national programmes are engaging stakeholders, but more or less, they are working within their silos -- we should be bridging that gap" emphasized Dr Sachdeva.
An enabling environment for health seeking behaviours is also a part of progressing towards health justice. "Involving more community members to take care of their own health, demystifying some of the treatment options for complex diseases, and building the capacity of health personnel to address these public health issues, might be some of the key priorities for the near future" suggests Dr Sachdeva.
Innovative health financing is indeed becoming a compelling priority. "We should be leveraging resources beyond the Ministries of Health. For example tapping into corporate social responsibility programmes, corporate philanthropists, individual donors, there is thinking going on that we should be having a common platform and tapping into these resources" rightly opines Dr Sachdeva. Optimising every rupee or dollar invested in health is not 'a choice' anymore - it is the only choice to make most of what we have!
"We also need to look into human resource beyond what is available in national health system -- qualified individuals who are available within the country should be able to contribute for a disease-free India" said Dr Sachdeva.
Moments that glitter as years rolled by
"One of such moments I can think of is when we introduced the essential drug list and essential list of surgical consumables for government of Delhi and then carried out procurement on them, saving 40% of costs incurred earlier. It is satisfying to see such initiatives are sustainable and rolling. Similarly India's drug resistant TB programme diagnoses and puts on treatment the highest number of patients compared to any other country in the world, and we have treatment outcomes comparable to the rest of the world. Pharmacovigilance and introduction of new drugs is another such moment but there is still a lot of work to do," said Dr Sachdeva. We cannot agree more with him as a lot more needs to happen for ensuring that the new anti-TB and HIV care drugs reach every person in need.
Persistence is key
For those who are beginning their journey in public health, Dr Sachdeva has some words of advise: "One of the messages I will like to give them is that this is a very exciting, challenging and satisfying area, but it is not that the rewards will come instantaneously. Rewards may come after few years after you have put in hard work, as opposed to clinical work where rewards may come within days, weeks or months of putting in hard work. Rewards you see here are very disproportionate to the efforts you may have put in--one policy level change can affect the entire spectrum of lives of the community. We need dedication, patience, and perseverance to see the results of our efforts."
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