Sankara Eye Foundation has 11 eye hospitals, 125 doctors & 600 paramedical professionals

An Indian eye care institution is celebrating its one millionth free eye surgery with a special ceremony on Thursday at the Churchill Dining room in the House of Commons. NRI Punjabi MP Virendra Sharma, who represents the Ealing Southall constituency in UK Parliament, has agreed to preside over the occasion.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a definitive step towards introduction of the proposed undergraduate course in rural healthcare by deciding to approach the Union Cabinet for its

The incidence of cancer in the rural areas in the country is much lower when compared to towns and cities, triggering an interest among experts to study the causes for the phenomenon.

While the incidence is 45 per one lakh a year in the rural areas, it is as high as 95-100 per lakh a year in major cities and 70 per lakh a year in midsized towns, according to Rajendra Badwe, Director Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

Private hospitals refuse treatment under government insurance schemes

The Chhattisgarh government has had to accept yet another setback while trying desperately to rope in private players to strengthen public health care services. At least 20 major private hospitals have refused to provide treatment under the Chief Minister’s health insurance scheme — Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY). Reportedly, they are also not following guidelines to provide treatment under the national health insurance scheme, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), and are charging money from the patients.

Dozens of residents of Gatauli village in the district are in the grip of hepatitis-B, better known as jaundice, thanks to the alleged contaminated drinking water and non-availability of a medical

Kashmiri women have little to cheer about on International Women’s Day. Various medical studies and surveys in the Valley show women in Kashmir are more depressed than men due to two decades of turmoil and violence.

A survey conducted by Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, Srinagar, revealed that women constitute 55 to 60 per cent of the patients who visit the hospital annually to seek treatment for psychiatric diseases.

The Cabinet will take up the proposal for a National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) on Thursday. It will cater to the 37.7 crore urban population and will be a sub-mission of an overarching National Health Mission (NHM) for urban and rural areas.

In a potentially contentious proposal and a shift from NRHM, where public health facilities are the sole service providers, NUHM is proposed to have provisions for public-private partnerships to fill infrastructure gaps.

“Maternal and child health indicate the robustness of our health sector”

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday accorded due appreciation to the fact that the country’s under-five mortality rate has declined much faster than the global average, but agreed that the challenge was to bring down neonatal mortality. Speaking at the inauguration of a national summit ‘Call to Action — Child Survival and Development,’ Mr. Azad noted with pride that there was a quantum jump in the annual rate of decline in the recent past. Also, the decline in child deaths in rural areas and in the States with weak health indicators was both sharp and steady.