India on brink of health crisis, surge in diabetes, heart disease and cancer: Doctors sound alarm
New Delhi (PTI): India is on the cusp of a health crisis, with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer reaching epidemic proportions, a group of Padma awardee doctors has said.
At a session hosted recently by Pacific OneHealth, the doctors warned that without immediate action, India will be overwhelmed by this NCD epidemic.
Padma Shri Dr DS Rana, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, underlined the need for universal access and ethical regulation.
"Our ultimate goal should be universal healthcare. While India has progressed, disparities persist. We need strong ethical practices and regulatory courage, particularly in drug pricing and hospital costs, to make healthcare equitable," Dr Rana said.
On the rising burden of heart disease, Padma Shri Dr Praveen Chandra, Chairman, Interventional and Structural Heart Cardiology, Medanta, said the heart is the common pathway for multiple diseases.
"Emergency angioplasty within the golden hour can save countless lives, and advanced cardiac interventions are now accessible even to patients in their 80s and 90s," he said, even as emphasised the importance of preventive health.
Endocrinologist and diabetologist Dr Anoop Misra, a Padma Shri awardee, raised his concerns over diabetes.
"One in three Delhi residents is diabetic, with another 30 per cent pre-diabetic. This is nothing to be proud of -- prevention and early control are critical. Drugs like Ozempic may show promise, but lifestyle and awareness remain the strongest tools we have," said the Chairman, Fortis C-DOC Hospital for Diabetes and Allied Sciences, and a former Professor (Medicine) at Delhi AIIMS.
Padma Shri Dr Mohsin Wali, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, stressed the importance of trust-based care, and cited his own hospital's non-profit model that, he said, embodies the motto 'Healthcare As It Should Be.'
"By adopting such models, we can effectively address the growing burden of NCDs and make significant strides towards a healthier India," Dr Wali said.
Dr Swadeep Srivastava, President and Co-Founder, Pacific OneHealth, observed that healthcare must evolve from a privilege to a promise, rooted in ethics, powered by innovation, and centred on the patient.
"At Pacific OneHealth, we believe the future lies in bridging preventive, primary, and tertiary care seamlessly, while ensuring no one is left behind," Srivastava said.
The experts said that though India has achieved significant progress in medical technology and treatment, the unchecked rise of lifestyle diseases and lack of preventive screening are pushing it towards a health emergency.
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2019 mud attack on engineer: Maharashtra court sentences BJP minister Nitesh Rane to one-month jail
Mumbai (PTI): A court in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case of pouring mud on an NHAI engineer when he was in opposition, and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment, noting that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands.
Later, the court suspended Rane's sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.
"Even though Rane's intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public," additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh stated.
"If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity," the judge noted.
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Calling the act "abuse of power", the court held that "it is the demand of time to curb such tendency".
Rane, a son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was among 30 people charged under various offences, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant, and criminal conspiracy. He was in Congress when the incident occurred.
All the accused, including Nitesh Rane, were acquitted of these offences, as the court found insufficient evidence to support most of these claims.
However, the court found Nitesh Rane guilty of an offence under section 504 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace) and sentenced him to one month's jail.
Rane, then a Congress MLA, had called the Sub-Divisional Engineer of the National Highway Authority, Prakash Shedekar, to a bridge over the Gad river in Kankavli on July 4, 2019, for inspecting the work to widen the Mumbai-Goa Highway.
According to the prosecution, Nitesh Rane and his followers, frustrated by the poor quality of the roadwork and waterlogging, confronted the engineer. They poured muddy water on Shedekar and forced him to walk through slush in public.
The court, after perusing the evidence on record, noted that the informant (victim) was holding a high post in the National Highway Authority.
"Despite that, he was made to walk through the muddy water in public. It would have certainly humiliated and insulted him," the court remarked.
The judge held that Rane compelling Shedekar to walk through the muddy water "was nothing but an intentional insult to the informant," and provocation which will cause him to break the public peace.
