It sounds like heresy but we've got to stop treating the NHS like a national religion

Every healthcare system throughout the world is currently in the middle of a perfect storm.


The deepening crisis engulfing all health services has been caused by three crucial factors: ageing populations, mounting costs in advancing technology and treatment, and well-informed service users who are used to making sophisticated consumer choices.

Yet the problems are perhaps more acute in Britain than anywhere else in Western Europe, not least because our monolithic National Health Service is proving too inflexible, bureaucratic and outdated to meet the challenges of the new era.
Sixty years old this month, the NHS was designed for an entirely different age, when life expectancy was far lower, medicine was less complex and the British population, having emerged from six years of gruesome war, was much more subservient to state authority.

The Labour Government, while adopting an increasingly proprietorial air towards the NHS in the run-up to the 60th anniversary, has recognised the system is in dire need of reform.

The strategy adopted during the years of Tony Blair's rule was to throw vast mountains of cash at the system. Since Labour came to power, NHS spending has more than trebled, topping ?100billion annually.

But real change was not delivered, so the usual problems have persisted, particularly in the rationing of treatment, the differing standards throughout the country and the increasing costs of a top-heavy bureaucracy.

When Gordon Brown arrived in Downing Street last summer, he appointed a leading and very capable surgeon, Lord Darzi, as one of his health ministers and ordered him to conduct a fullscale review of the NHS.

The result is the document launched yesterday under the optimistic and slightly Soviet-sounding title High Quality Care For All.

But it would be wrong to be too cynical. Lord Darzi is a dedicated healthcare professional, not a calculating career politician, and there is much to admire in his document.

For a start, the idea of creating polyclinics in every town is an excellent one, vastly improving access to healthcare, especially for those who have busy working lives and cannot easily get to GPs surgeries during the day.

These new-style polyclinics have been given a bad press by the doctors' professional union, the British Medical Association. As a result of this negative campaign, they have been presented as a destructive alternative to the trusted GP.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Polyclinics are a complement to current services and, if run properly, they will expand the range of the treatments available, thereby reducing the pressure on hospitals and delivering care far closer to patient's homes.

Mind you, for all the benefits of polyclinics, it was this Government that shattered the tradition of GPs providing 24-hour cover through its disastrously botched negotiations of the last GP contract, which allowed doctors to reduce drastically their hours and yet receive more money.

In part, therefore, polyclinics are a solution to a problem created by ministers.

There are other aspects of the Darzi report to be welcomed. The proposed NHS constitution, which legally enshrines patients' rights, should act as a restraint on authorities trying to block certain types of treatment.

Lord Darzi's call for closer working between the various branches of the NHS is common sense, though too often ignored by empire-building bureaucrats who jealously guard their own territories.

Speeding up the procedures by which the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) decides whether to license a certain drug will also benefit thousands of patients.

But there is also a serious downside. As with so many statist plans, the expansion of bureaucracy becomes a substitute for real action.

Sadly, in failing to learn the recent lessons of history, Lord Darzi has allowed his plan to become littered with yet more extensions of the corporate state.

So we read that he wants a National Quality Board, a new Care Quality Commission, a new NHS Medical Education Service and a new Fit To Work service, as well as vast amount of new paperwork contained in the demands for 'quality accounts' - audits of how well patients are treated - as well as a host of other indicators, targets and box-ticking exercises.

Just as worryingly, there seems to be a fundamental contradiction at the heart of his document. On the one hand, he says he wants to end the ' postcode lottery'.


On the other, he argues that, to improve efficiency, better performing trusts and health centres should be rewarded with extra funding, while poor performers should be penalised.

But in practice, such an approach will only worsen the variation in the provision of treatment. In effect, patients will be hit twice over for living under an inadequate trust. The key is the lack of tangible incentives to drive efficiency.

So we need to admit - and this is almost heresy - that the NHS just can't do everything. We like to be sentimental about it as though it was a religion. It's simply a core service on which to build our own responsibility for health. Service users must make the transition into welcomed customers.

This brings us to the greatest weakness of Lord Darzi's scheme. For all Gordon Brown's talk yesterday of 'the bold vision' of the ten-year plan, in practice it is only perpetuating the failed structure of the NHS.

The fact is that the continuation of the state healthcare monopoly can never meet the needs of the British people in the 21st century.

This is partly because we have reached the limits of taxation on job-holders. Those in work would simply not put up with a further 5 or 10 per cent increase in their income tax to pay for the NHS.

But more importantly, the very existence of a massive bureaucratic monopoly breeds its own chronic inefficiencies, leading to widespread waste, mismanagement, low productivity and lack of pressure on suppliers and contractors.

In my own field of cancer treatment, for instance, many leading drugs are far more expensive in Britain than in continental Europe, for the sole reason that the absence of any commercial competition here means that the big companies can keep pushing up their prices, knowing that the Government will have to pay.

What we really need in healthcare is more competition, with the Government acting as the guarantor of a basic level of treatment for all patients. The NHS should be regarded as a private health insurance company, not a national religion.

Far from leading to injustices, the introduction of a proper market would actually lead to real reform, driving up standards and lowering costs, just as happens in most other Western countries.

A truly radical reform would be to give every individual a health insurance voucher, enabling them to choose to buy their treatment wherever they wanted. That would transform healthcare in this country far more than all the fine words of the NHS constitution.

• PROFESSOR Karol Sikora is a leading cancer specialist and former chief of the World Health Organisation Cancer Programme.

1,600 British early retirees lose their health cover in the Valencia region

The Valencian Regional Health Service say they will no longer treat those British retired residents who have not reached pensioner age.
Spanish newspaper El País has picked up on the policy change from the regional health service in Valencia which means that thousands of pre-retirement foreign residents in the region will no longer be able to obtain free health care.

Until now the Valencian public health service had an open-door policy for the hundreds of pre-retirement British residents in the region who were thus attended to in the region under a category of ‘extensión o demada’.

The Generalitat regional government said that some 3,000 foreigners have been benefitting from the arrangement, 1,600 of them British residents, and that it explained a high number of operations for problems such as cataracts, angina or other heart problems. The costs of these treatments was being met by the regional health service in Valencia which has said ‘no more’.

Pensioners are not affected as the Valencia health service can claim back the cost of their treatment from the British Government, and tourists also have no problems as the E-111 card covers their needs in Spain for as long as a year.
However those who retire early to the Costa Blanca are not covered unless that retirement has been forced by an accident or illness.

Now such British early retirees are obliged to take out private health insurance. The change in practice in Valencia was supported by both the Partido Popular and the Socialists in a move to better control access to health resources.
The move could well be followed by other regional health services in Spain.

Knowlton joins insurance agency

LEWISTON - Allstate Insurance Co. announces that agent Jon Knowlton is expanding an existing agency.

Knowlton has purchased former agent Gerry Dutil's book of business and is now meeting the insurance and financial needs of families in Androscoggin and surrounding counties. Knowlton worked for agent Patti Gagne as a sales producer, and brings solid industry experience with him. He holds his P&C, Life and Health and Series 6 & 63 securities licenses.

The Jon Knowlton Allstate Insurance Agency, located at 400 Sabattus St., is a full-service agency providing insurance and financial service assistance. The agency is open Monday through Friday, with evening and Saturday appointments available by calling 783-7555.

Mills on NDC failures in government: 'I was a bad judge'

Kwabena Amankwah , 20/06/2008

The Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress, John Evans Atta Mills, Wednesday admitted that the mistakes he made while serving in the NDC Government as the Vice President were due to his poor sense of judgment of people.

"I was not a good judge of people when I was in Government,” the Law Professor stated when he took his turn on “The Evening Encounter with Presidential Candidates,” an interactive programme initiated by the Institute of Economic Affairs, under the auspices of the Ghana Political Parties Programme.

Prof Mills was responding to a question about the mistakes he made whiles in government.

When he was reminded of the fact that it would not be prudent to entrust the destinies of over 20 million Ghanaians into the hands of somebody with a flawed sense of judgment, the NDC flag bearer was, however, quick to assure, “I was a bad judge of people when I was in Government, but now I'm not.”

Even though the nation's economy was rendered almost comatose under his watch as the Chairman of the National Economic Management Team, in addition to allowing an American 'businesswoman,’ Juliet Cotton, to walk away with a huge amount of state- guaranteed loans secured for a rice project, Prof Mills insisted that he resorted to “prudent fiscal” measures in handling the economy, adding that he would apply the same measure if he ascended the nation’s presidency.

Prof Mills, who used much of his time to castigate the Kufuor administration, made a lot of promises which some analysts have described as "too lofty and overly ambitious," wondering how somebody who is seeking to rule the nation could make such promises without giving any indication of concrete measures to raise the needed funds to fulfill them.

He promised to provide potable water for all Ghanaians, insisting that "a caring government will not look on unconcerned while people suffer water shortages."

Others include solving the problem of slums being developed in the city; embarking on an irrigation project in the Accra Plains; expanding the school feeding programme to cover all basic schools; providing free uniforms for basic school pupils; expanding access to secondary education and working to progressively make it free; reviewing the National Health Insurance Scheme "to make it more national"; establishing a factory in the Western Region to produce fertilizer; fighting crime and corruption; and restoring the morale of the Police Service.

But, speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show yesterday, Abu Sasraku Foster, a CPP guru, could not understand why Prof Mills could make such promises without providing practical measures to translate them into reality.

Views sampled among some of the electorate across the country indicate that they were not convinced about the sincerity of Prof Mill’s promises.

"This is a man who had the opportunity to serve the nation as the Vice President and also headed the National Economic Management Team. What legacy did he leave to convince us that he will be able to manage the affairs of the nation, if he is given the mandate?" Dennis Kwakwa, a youth opinion leader wondered.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Asare "Gabby" Otchere- Darko, has urged the NDC flag bearer to "take Ghanaians serious if he wants to be taken serious."

Commenting on Prof Mills’ presentation on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show programme yesterday, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Statesman observed, "It was the typical run of Mills sort of thing - bash NPP small, praise the PNDC and NDC, give promises, to deceive himself that he can ride on them to power, without telling the people how to pay for the promises."

In the words of Mr Otchere-Darko, "it is not just enough to make such promises; we can all make promises, but you have to cost the promises and tell the people how practical they are if you want them to take you serious."

Spokesperson for the NDC flag bearer, Mahama Ayariga, however, insisted that Prof Mills was sincere about all the promises he made, and that bringing them into reality was not an impossibility.

The MP for Bawku Central yesterday told listeners of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show that a clear-cut plan to fulfill all the promises had been clearly spelt out, and had been indicated by Prof Mills in some of his previous presentations. Mr Ayariga however, failed to add anything concrete to the promises made by his party leader.

'Insurer forced annuity, but we still work'

When dentists Nick and Polly Patsias turned 60 within a month of each other last summer, it wasn't only birthday cards that came tumbling through their letterbox - they also received letters from numerous insurance companies inviting them to turn their savings into a lifetime income through an annuity.

As owners of a thriving dental practice in Beckenham, Kent, the couple had no intention of retiring so they ignored the correspondence.
But one of the companies they had saved with - Abbey Life - took it upon itself to buy an annuity for them.

Abbey Life turned a pension of £57,000 in Polly's name into an annual income - payable once a year in arrears - of just over £3,300 without offering her tax-free cash or any financial protection.

A worthy tribute

By L. PIERCE CARSON

Register Staff Writer

Big bottles of cult status wine, no-stone-left-unturned trips all over the world, lavish wine parties, automobiles filled with collectible wine and old-fashioned star power combined Saturday night to push Auction Napa Valley 2008 proceeds past the $10 million mark.
The second time this decade that the valley’s trendsetting charity wine event exceeded all expectations, proceeds for the 28th annual fundraiser totaled $10.3 million, just $200,000 short of the record set in 2005.

“It’s fabulous,” enthused Kathleen Heitz Myers, who co-chaired this year’s auction with her mother, Alice, and brother, David.
Noting that “people come here from all over the world” to bid on exceptional wine lots donated by the 300-member trade organization, Napa Valley Vintners, Myers said the outcome “validates what we do in the community. I can only offer praise for all the staff and volunteers do, and thank the bidders for their support. I’m thrilled.”

Jay Leno, host of “The Tonight Show,” returned to wine country to kick off this year’s dinner auction with trademark quips and observations of current events. He tackled everything from politics to out-of-control teen stars, from obesity to the Pope.
His remarks tickled the crowd’s fancy, including the queen of TV talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, who dined in the giant white tent on the Meadowood fairway with vintner and former Hollywood mogul Rich Frank and ABC-TV chief Steve McPherson, teaming up to offer one of the auction’s coveted lots — one that included a walk-on role on “Grey’s Anatomy” and an extraordinary wine trip to New Zealand. While Winfrey confessed “Napa Valley is my new favorite place,” she did not bid on any of the live auction’s 44 super lots.

The lot that raised the most money Saturday night was one that barely registered on the radar as the glamorous offerings were put on public display at an auction preview last Friday.

“Fund A Need” underwrites medical care offered by Community Health Clinic Ole, quietly explained one of the agency’s biggest boosters, vintner John Shafer. He told bidders that Clinic Ole — which serves farm workers and area residents with little or no health insurance — had taken care of 20,000 patients last year. He said Auction Napa Valley continues to fund Clinic Ole each year and hoped that bidders could find a little extra in their wallets to do the same.

As a sweetener, Chanel Fine Jewelry provided the top bidder in this lot with a diamond necklace valued at $40,000.

Bids were taken at levels of $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $50,000 and so on, up to the high bid of $500,000 made by Woodside’s Joy Craft, who, as auctioneer Humphrey Butler clasped the diamond pendant around her neck, told reporters: “This is what I came to do tonight.”

With vintners Mary Miner and the Steffens family offering runner-up bids of $200,000 and $300,000, respectively, the Fund A Need lot brought in a total of $1.7 million for Clinic Ole.

Raising just under $1 million was the final lot, which celebrates the life of industry icon Robert Mondavi, who passed away a little over three weeks ago just shy of his 95th birthday.

Put together by vintners Garen and Shari Staglin, an event at Copia on June 28 will feature a panel of friends and family discussing the life, wines and contributions of Robert Mondavi, preceded by a reception where a majority of Napa Valley Vintners members will be pouring their wines. Five top-flight chefs from East and West Coast restaurants will prepare a celebratory dinner paired with 17 wines.

Prior to bids being taken, a moving video tribute to Mondavi was screened and his 94-year-old brother, Peter, offered both toast and tribute to Bob and Margrit Mondavi. Taken aback by the sustained applause from all in the tent, the younger Mondavi brother recalled his sibling’s “tremendous energy” and that he wanted “only the best for the wine industry.

“It’s hard to recall all the things that he did ... and he wasn’t only just for the Napa Valley. We’ll all miss him.”

The lot brought in a total of $950,000, with 95 people agreeing to pay $10,000 each for a place at the table.

It took a bit of coaxing from auctioneer Fritz Hatton for the event’s biggest wine lot to tie a record set during the dotcom boom. Previously, a successful dotcomer paid $500,000 for a six liter bottle of Screaming Eagle, a cult wine made from Oakville fruit. Although this year’s lot offered more wine — six liter bottles of Screaming Eagle from the inaugural 1992 vintage — David Li paid the same amount — half a million dollars — for it. The owner of a cyberspace company located in Shanghai, Li maintains Screaming Eagle is “the best wine in the world.”

The live auction brought in $8,598,000 this year, with the popular Friday afternoon barrel auction contributing $1,383,000. The newest adjunct of Auction Napa Valley, the e-auction, netted $371,203 from online bidding around the world.

Auction’s top lots

While the stock market took a nosedive at the end of last week, unemployment numbers were way up and the price of gasoline topped $4 a gallon, bidders weren’t shy about raising their bidding paddles. A number of this year’s offerings saw spirited bidding and final numbers that exceeded quiet predictions.

Once again, a lot that incorporated wine and Hollywood soundstages proved a popular attraction. Rich Frank, of Frank Family Vineyards, teamed up with ABC-TV president Steve McPherson to offer a walk-on part in the hit ABC series, “Grey’s Anatomy,” in addition to dinner for four with some of the cast members at Mozza, hosted by chefs Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali. Following the Hollywood events, Frank will whisk the quartet off to New Zealand on an Air New Zealand Business Premiere flight for a week of wine tasting and lavish tastings and dinner parties. Also included in the lot is a five-year vertical of etched magnums of Frank Family’s Winston Hill cabernet sauvignon and a case of 2005 Promise, Frank and McPherson’s new joint venture of small lot cabernet sauvignon.

Auction regulars Jody and Stratton Sclavos, of Saratoga, paid $480,000 for this lot. When Frank and McPherson first teamed up to make this type offer at the 25th auction in 2005, the Sclavoses were top bidders as well, paying $300,00 for wine, dinner with Teri Hatcher and a “Desperate Housewives” walk-on.

There was also plenty of interest in the lot offered by Harlan Estate, a ten-magnum vertical of its Bordeaux blend (1995-2004) in a special presentation case, along with a celebratory dinner for eight with vintner Bill Harlan. Auction regular John Thompson teamed up with Paul Wick, both residents of the Peninsula, for the high bid of $340,000.

St. Helena’s Hi Sang Lee picked up a pair of lots that also prompted a wealth of bids. First was Blackbird Vineyards invitation for four to experience the excitement of a Chanel fashion show in Paris and to stay in the upscale Hotel Plaza Athénée. While in Paris, the foursome will get a tour of the private apartment of Coco Chanel. Two double magnums of Blackbird’s proprietary blend were also included in the lot. Lee ponied up $300,000 for the Parisian experience.

He also spent $290,000 on the lot offered by Bryant Family Vineyard. It includes an eight magnum vertical of Bryant Family Vineyard cabernet from 1993 through 2000. On top of that, Lee and five friends will join vintner Don Bryant at a private dinner at his New York City residence, paired with Bryant wines.

In addition to picking up the Chanel necklace, Joy Craft wanted another jewel, five double magnums from Colgin Cellars 2005 harvest — IX Estate Red and Syrah, Tychson Hill Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Cariad Red and Herb Lamb Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. She spent $260,000 for these gems.

Also among this year’s top 10 bids were:

The Chair’s Lot, offered by the Heitz family. It provided for exclusive use of the Point, a former Rockefeller Great Camp in the Adirondacks of New York, for eight couples. Heitz Wine Cellars is including roundtrip jet travel between Chicago and the Adirondacks, a dinner and wine tasting with Kathleen Heitz Myers at the luxury camp as well as a number of other meals during the four-day stay. The high bidder from Champaign, Ill., (who preferred to remain anonymous as permitted by auction officials) paid $240,000 for this excursion.

A dinner party with vintner Naoko Dalla Valle celebrating the return of Maya, a respected Bordeaux blend from Dalla Valle Vineyards, brought in a top bid of $200,000 from David Reis, of Rye, N.Y. The lot included Maya 2005 in one six-liter bottle and six 750 ml bottles.

Auction officials announced Saturday night that next year’s auction will be chaired by the Trefethen family, namely Janet and John and their children, Loren and Hailey.

Clinton refuses to bow out of presidential race

By JIM KUHNHENN and BETH FOUHY

NEW YORK (AP) — Angling for a vice presidential nod, Hillary Rodham Clinton refused to bow out of the Democratic race Tuesday, hoping to maintain leverage as Barack Obama clinched the delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.

"A lot of people are asking, 'What does Hillary want?'" Clinton told supporters at a rally in New York. "I want what I have always fought for: I want the nearly 18 million people who voted for me to be respected and heard."

Clinton told the crowd she would consult in the coming days with advisers about the fate of her moribund candidacy. But her remarks came hours after she told congressional colleagues she would be open to joining Obama as his running mate.

Many of her top supporters spoke openly of Clinton's potential vice presidential prospects. Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel under President Clinton, said he told the former first lady Tuesday that he was initiating a petition to press Obama to select her for the second spot on the ticket. He said Clinton did not encourage or discourage the step.

"If he doesn't have her, I think he can still win. With her on the ticket, he can't be beat," Davis said.

Clinton's national finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, said he was also pushing an Obama-Clinton ticket, claiming that together they would be able to raise $200 million to $250 million for the general election.

Advisers indicated earlier Tuesday that the former first lady would publicly acknowledge in her speech that Obama had crossed the delegate threshold. But she changed her mind and refused to do so even after television networks and The Associated Press declared the Illinois senator had sealed the nomination.

Her advisers said they considered the delegate numbers to be unreliable, even as the AP estimated Obama had several more than the 2,118 needed to nominate. Earlier, Clinton acknowledged on a conference call with New York lawmakers that the delegate math was not there for her to overtake Obama, according to several participants on the call.

She said none of that publicly Tuesday but vowed the Democratic Party would unite in its effort to defeat Republican John McCain in November.

Clinton won South Dakota's primary Tuesday, while Obama won Montana's. The two contests rounded out a historic five-month primary battle that pitted the first major black candidate against the first serious woman contender.

The South Dakota victory, which was unexpected, gave Clinton an excuse to buy more time to consider options, her advisers said.

On the conference call with New York colleagues, Clinton, a New York senator, said she would be willing to become Obama's running mate if it would help Democrats win the White House.

Clinton's remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who said she believed the best way for Obama to win key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.

"I am open to it," Clinton replied, if it would help the party's prospects in November. Her direct quote was described by two lawmakers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Clinton.

"I deserve some time to get this right," she said, even as the other lawmakers forcefully argued for her to press Obama to choose her as his running mate.

Joseph Crowley, a Queens Democrat who participated in the call, said her answer "left open the possibility that she would do anything that she can to contribute toward a Democratic victory in November. There was no hedging on that. Whatever she can do to contribute, she was willing to do."

Another person on the call, Rep. Jose Serrano of New York City, said her answer was "just what I was hoping to hear. ... Of course she was interested in being president, but she's just as interested in making sure Democrats get elected in November."

Rep. Charles Rangel, a devoted booster of Clinton who helped pave the way for her successful Senate campaign, said he spoke to her Tuesday and got much the same answer.

"She's run a great campaign and even though she'll be a great senator, she has a lot of followers that obviously Obama doesn't have, and clearly the numbers are against her and so I think they bring all parts of the Democratic Party together and then some," Rangel said.

Aides to the Illinois senator said he and Clinton had not spoken about the prospects of her joining the ticket.

Most of Clinton's campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

Universal health care, Clinton's signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their nomination fight.

Clinton reiterated her commitment to that issue in her remarks Tuesday.

"It is a fight I will continue until every single American has health insurance. No exceptions and no excuses," she said.

Other names have been floated as possible running mates for Obama, including former rivals New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and governors including Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Tim Kaine of Virginia. Also mentioned are foreign policy experts including former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, and other senators such as Missouri's Claire McCaskill and Virginia's Jim Webb.

Obama could also look outside the party to people such as anti-war Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska or independent New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Or he could look to one of his prominent supporters such as former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota or try to bring on a Clinton supporter, such as Indiana's Sen. Evan Bayh or retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

Beth Fouhy reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

Health, chemicals ministries sort out pharma policy issues

The controversial National Pharmaceutical Policy 2006 may finally see the light of the day with the Health Ministry and Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry sorting out differences over some proposals in the policy. "The secretaries of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers, held a meeting a couple of weeks back in which concerns of Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss were discussed and ironed out," a senior government official told a news agency.

With the issues sorted out, the Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry would be approaching the Group of Ministers (GoM), which was formed to look into the policy again, the official said while adding that it would then be up to the GoM to decide on the future course of action.

The draft pharma policy was referred to the GoM headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, after concerns were raised by the pharmaceutical industry over the issue of price control as proposed in the draft. Till now, four meetings of the GoM have taken place but it has not been able to find a solution.

In the fourth meeting held on 30th April, Health Ministry has objected to the some of the proposals made in the draft after which it was decided that secretaries from both ministries should sit and overcome hurdles for smooth passage of the policy. The Health Ministry had apparently objected to the provisions in the pharma policy pertaining to drug regulator and procurement of medicines for government hospitals and health insurance, which it felt would be duplicated.