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Hindustan Times
01-08-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
BMC relaunches Aapli Chikitsa scheme after seven-month pause
MUMBAI: The civic administration will relaunch its Aapli Chikitsa Yojana, a subsidised diagnostic testing scheme, on Friday. It will be available across 100 municipal health facilities, after a seven-month pause. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is also aiming to launch the service in all civic-run hospitals by August 15. BMC relaunches Aapli Chikitsa scheme after seven-month pause The scheme will provide blood testing facilities to citizens at nominal rates through an external source in the institutions from where it operates. Reports will be sent to citizens via WhatsApp. According to civic officials, the scheme will cover both basic and advanced tests at dispensaries, polyclinics and 30 civic-run maternity hospitals, Dr RN Cooper Hospital, HBT Trauma Care Centre and 16 suburban hospitals, five specialty hospitals, and all municipal hospitals from wards A to E. It will cover 83 tests – 66 basic tests and 17 advanced tests – available in health institutions run by the state government. 'The tests were included in the scheme based on recommendations from an expert committee. The BMC will collect the patient data and information, and formulate the results after uploading the information on a Health Information Management System (HIMS),' said a civic official. This will help to directly relay the report to patients via WhatsApp, said the official. The BMC had rolled out the scheme in 2019, significantly improving access to these diagnostic services. However, after 18 months, the firm contracted to manage the scheme for four years, Krsnna Diagnostics, encountered problems in operating the scheme, disrupting services in many hospitals. The scheme was shut down on December 15, 2024. The corporation failed to appoint a new contractor until now. Lifenity health will be the new service provider for the scheme, selected via a tender. 'It is good that the BMC has re-launched the scheme but they must ensure that medicines and healthcare staff must be present as per requirements, without having to rely entirely on paramedics. Due to the monsoon upsurge in illnesses, there is an urgent need for accessible health care at nominal costs,' said health economist Dr Ravi Duggal.
Time of India
17-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Maharashtra records high number of low birth weight babies despite economic progress
Mumbai: Maharashtra, despite its economic advancement, lags in an important health parameter: its number of low-weight births is among the highest in the country. Along with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 50% of the low birth weight babies born in the country, according to a review article published in BMJ Global Health, an indexed journal that carries peer-reviewed articles, on Tuesday. The BMJ study analysed trends in low-weight births across states from 1993 to 2021, utilising data from five National Family Health Surveys conducted in this period. While low-weight births decreased from 26% to 18% during this period at the national level, there are states where every third child born is still under 2.5 kg and classified as a low birth-weight baby. Many states, such as Rajasthan and Delhi, caught up with the national average, but a few still remain behind. "The 2019–21 (NFHS) survey suggests that there were 4.2 million low birth-weight babies in a single year in India. Just four states — Uttar Pradesh (858,000), Bihar (430,000), Maharashtra (399,000), and West Bengal (318,000) — accounted for almost half (47%) of all these births," said the article. Birth weight is an important measure of the health of pregnant women and newborns. "A baby could be born with low birth weight because he/she is premature or because of some health issues with the mother," said neonatologist Dr Nandkishor Kabra from Surya Children's Hospital in Santacruz. The mother could be malnourished, anaemic, hypertensive, or have an infection, and her low birth weight baby could be at a higher risk of chronic diseases in later life or developing cognitive problems. Experts believe Maharashtra's failure to check low-weight births reflects inadequate allocation for public health. Health economist Dr Ravi Duggal previously pointed out that public finance for healthcare in India is one of the lowest in the world. While the national figure is Rs 1,448 per capita, some states spend more. In Arunachal, it is Rs 6,706 per capita, and Rs 5,575 per capita in Sikkim. "However, at the bottom, we have West Bengal at Rs 806 per capita, UP at Rs 892 per capita, Bihar at Rs 898 per capita, and Maharashtra at Rs 975 per capita," he said. The study's authors, including S V Subramanian from Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies, said, "Despite the overall progress, the persistence of high prevalence of low birth weight in certain states highlights the need for ongoing efforts to address maternal and neonatal health disparities."
