16-Oct-2019: Dr Harsh Vardhan launches Food Safety Mitra (FSM) scheme for strengthening and scaling up ‘Eat Right India’ movement
“By motivating key players in the system who can reach out to people at large, we can reach out to each and every individual. We have to include every section of the society so that Eat Right India becomes a country wide movement.” Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said at the function to commemorate World Food Day 2019. The theme for this day was ‘Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World’. To mark the occasion, Dr Harsh Vardhan also launched the ‘Food Safety Mitra (FSM)’ scheme, along with the ‘Eat Right Jacket’, and ‘Eat Right Jhola’ to strengthen food safety administration and scale up the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
Dr Harsh Vardhan emphasized that the Eat Right India movement is a crucial trigger for the much needed social and behavioural change. This campaign along with the ‘Fit India' Movement' can achieve huge success if the right strategy is adopted and efforts are made to reach out to every section of the society. Dr. Harsh Vardhan further stated that people should adopt Gandhiji’s messages of eating less, eating safe and healthy food, and also reduce wastage of food while developing the habit of sharing surplus food. Citing the example of polio to highlight multi-sectoral approach, Dr Harsh Vardhan stated “All of us have to take up this responsibility in our own capacities. I believe that together we will be able to develop new approaches to combat challenges to health and society,”.
Highlighting the critical importance of a Jan Andolan on issues around food safety, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that small positive actions can be performed by individuals or organisations to strengthen the cause of food safety and food wastage.
The ‘Food Safety Mitra (FSM)’ scheme will support small and medium scale food businesses to comply with the food safety laws and facilitate licensing and registration, hygiene ratings and training. Apart from strengthening food safety, this scheme would also create new employment opportunities for youth, particularly with food and nutrition background. The FSMs would undergo training and certification by FSSAI to do their work and get paid by food businesses for their services. The first batch of 15 FSMs were awarded certificates today.
The ‘Eat Right Jacket’ launched today will be used by the field staff. This jacket has a smart design to hold tech devices like tablets/smart phone, a QR code and RFID tag for identification and tracking. Apart from providing safety to field staff on duty, this would bring in efficiency, professionalism and transparency in food safety administration and bring in a sense of ownership & visibility of FSOs. The ‘Eat Right Jhola’, a reusable cloth bag shall replace plastic bags for grocery shopping in various retail chains. Since on repeated use, bags are often contaminated with microorganisms and bacteria, proper and regular washing of cloth bags is essential to ensure safety and hygiene. These cloth bags are being provided on rental basis through a private textile rental service company.
FSSAI has partnered with the Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council (DWSSC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to launch a training course for domestic workers and homemakers across the country. In the first phase, one lakh domestic workers and homemakers will be trained through training partners of DWSSC in association with RWAs. This would be scaled up in due course.
For scaling up the Eat Right India movement across the country, FSSAI has got endorsement of several celebrities. Two short films, on repurposing of used cooking oil into biodiesel and, nutrition in the first 1000 days of life featuring Shri Virat Kohli and Ms. Juhi Chawla respectively, were released on the occasion.
21-Oct-2019: New guidelines released for peritoneal dialysis services
In a new development in the care of patients with kidney disease, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has come out with a set of guidelines for establishing peritoneal dialysis services under the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme.
The guidelines aim to serve as a comprehensive manual to states that intend to set up peritoneal dialysis services and for providers of peritoneal dialysis as a `best practice’ document to ensure delivery of high quality and cost effective services.
It also aims to achieve equity in patient access to home-based peritoneal dialysis, reduce the overall cost of care to the system by focusing on efficient leveraging of resources, and bring in consistency of practice, pricing and a full range of product availability.
The guidelines are a result of a consultative process coordinated by the National Health Systems Resource Centre and an experts’ committee chaired by Dr Vivekanand Jha, Executive Director of the George Institute for Global Health, India and consisting of nephrologists from around the country, as well as health systems and policy experts.
This is good news for about two lakh Indians who develop end-stage kidney failure every year in India. They now have another treatment option that allows them to perform dialysis at home with potential flexibility in lifestyle. Mass-based peritoneal dialysis programmes also have the potential to substantially bring down the cost of treatment.
The government had announced the National Dialysis Program in 2016. Its first phase envisaged setting up of haemodialysis centres in all districts. Now, it has been expanded to include peritoneal dialysis considering that it offers patient autonomy and would help reduce the demand on healthcare system and avoid substantial costs on infrastructure, maintenance and staffing.
The new guidelines, among other things, envisage providing training to community health workers to provide support to persons on peritoneal dialysis at home or in primary health care settings.
Children with kidney failure were particularly disadvantaged due to the exclusion of peritoneal dialysis from this programme. This modality is particularly suited to children who need dialysis because of biological and lifestyle reasons. Further, paediatric haemodialysis facilities are scarce in India.
24-Oct-2018: Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme
End Stage Renal Disease continues to be a result of existing and emerging burden of non-communicable disease. Providing for renal transplant facilities for ESRD patients depends upon availability of infrastructure and robust organ donation system coupled with adequate availability of trained qualified manpower. Within the limited choices, dialysis practically remains the first and in majority of cases, the only choice for ESRD patients.
Every year about 2.2 Lakh new patients of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) get added in India resulting in additional demand for 3.4 Crore dialysis every year. With approximately 4950 dialysis centres, largely in the private sector in India, the demand is less than half met with existing infrastructure. Since every Dialysis has an additional expenditure tag of about Rs.2000, it results in a monthly expenditure for patients to the tune of Rs.3-4 Lakhs annually. Besides, most families have to undertake frequent trips, and often over long distances to access dialysis services incurring heavy travel costs and loss of wages for the patient and family members accompanying the patient.
Keeping this in mind, strengthening of District Hospitals by providing affordable multispecialty care including dialysis services in district hospitals would be an important step in this direction.
To gain from available capacity of private sector existing in dialysis care segment and their capability to install and operate dialysis care system in quick time, and compliment the emerging strengths of public sector such as availability of drugs and diagnostics, it has been proposed that Dialysis program be undertaken in Public Private Partnership.
Solution Strategy: There are two main types of dialysis, which are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
- Hemodialysis (HD, commonly known as blood dialysis): In HD, the blood is filtered through a machine that acts like an artificial kidney and is returned back into the body. HD needs to be performed in a designated dialysis centre. It is usually needed about 3 times per week, with each episode taking about 3-4 hours.
- Peritoneal dialysis (PD, commonly known as water dialysis): In PD, the blood is cleaned without being removed from the body. The abdomen sac (lining) acts as a natural filter. A solution (mainly made up of salts and sugars) is injected into the abdomen that encourages filtration such that the waste is transferred from the blood to the solution. There are 2 types of PD - continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). CAPD needs to be done 3 to 5 times every day, but does not require a machine. APD uses an automated cycler machine to perform 3 to 5 exchanges during the night while the patient is asleep.
Close medical supervision is not required for most PD cases, thus making it a feasible option for patients who may want to undergo dialysis in the home setting. Each treatment option has its advantages and disadvantages, which vary with the condition of the patient and presence of underlying diseases. It is therefore important for every patient with ESRD to discuss various treatment options in detail with his doctor before starting treatment.
Public Private Partnership for Hemodialysis services: Based on consultation with experts and discussion with some of the states implementing the Dialysis program in the PPP mode, the following was considered as the ideal and cost -effective approach.
- It is desirable to roll out dialysis services in the states, beginning with the District Hospitals in a PPP mode. Direct provisioning by the state governments would be time consuming and likely to be costly and risky.
- Service Provider should provide medical human resource, dialysis machine along with RO water plant infrastructure, dialyzer and consumables.
- Payer Government should provide space in District Hospitals, Drugs, Power and water supply and pay for the cost of dialysis for the poor patients.
12-Sep-2019: Prime Minister launches National Pension Scheme for Traders and Self Employed Persons
The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the National Pension Scheme for Traders and Self Employed Persons, a pension scheme for the Vyaparis (shopkeepers/retail traders and self-employed persons) with annual turnover not exceeding Rs 1.5 crore.
With this nation-wide launch, the facility for enrollment under the scheme has been made available to the prospective beneficiaries through 3.50 lakh Common Service Center (CSCs) across the country. In addition people can also self-enroll by visiting the portal www.maandhan.in/vyapari. The eligible Vyaparis can visit their nearest CSCs and get enrolled under the scheme. At the time of enrollment, the beneficiary is required to have an Aadhaar card and a saving bank/ Jan-dhan Account passbook only. He/ She should be within 18 to 40 years of age group. GSTIN is required only for those with turnover above Rs. 40 lakhs. The enrolment under the scheme is free of cost for the beneficiaries. The enrolment is based upon self-certification.
Government has approved National Pension Scheme for Traders and Self Employed Persons in acknowledgement of notable contribution of Vyaparis (shopkeepers/ retail traders and self-employed persons). It is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for entry age of 18 to 40 years with a provision for minimum assured pension of Rs 3,000/- monthly on attaining the age of 60 years. The beneficiary should not be income tax payer and also not a member of EPFO/ESIC/NPS (Govt.)/PM-SYM. The Central Government shall give 50% share of the monthly contribution and remaining 50% contribution shall be made by the beneficiary. The monthly contribution is kept low to make it affordable. For example, a beneficiary is required to contribute as little as Rs.100/- per month at a median entry age of 29 years.
This pension scheme is one of the top priorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government in its second term. According to the Ministry’s 100-day plan, this scheme will target enrolling 25 lakh subscribers in 2019-20 and 2 crore subscribers by 2023-2024. An estimated 3 crore Vyaparis in the country are expected to be benefitted under the pension scheme.