Cheap cures advocacy and call to action needed

Live healthy and long

Rizal Philippines   |  September 15, 2014



Cheap cures that are skin deep

So far this site has only done this much for cheap cures:

1.  Gathering articles about alternative herbal and plant cures;

2.  Advice on how to live healthy and strong;

3.  Advice on food, nutrition and exercise.

These are when diseases that are mortal and morbid or has not stricken patient.  But it does no explore the hard core of medicine and health issues:   as when the patient is critically ill or in sticken with big C all ready. Or heart disease Intervention and cures cost money.

So it is now time to take stock of the situation and act.

What is happening?

Dr. David Shetty of India, featured at Al Jazeera, philanthropist and cardiac surgeon - founder of low cost largest heart center in the world

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 Dr. David Shetty and Health City in Cayman island


Philippines,  February 6, 2014.

Wiki on Dr. David Shetty

Dr Shetty and Health City in Cayman Islands from Evolution Shift

From BMJ blog - Can Dr Shetty Scale up affordable health care?

Dr David Shetty, a philanthropist and cardiac surgeon, was earlier mentioned in this post by Dr. Mercola as basis of comparison between heart operation in India and USA.  It would cost about $100,000 in USA, for an indigent about l/100 of that amount.  In the March 14, 2013 issue of Time Magazine, David Brill explained why health care costs in US are high.

 He founded the Narayana Health  in 2001(formerly Narayana Hudayalayana) He founded the hospital because he can not find an employer who buys into his vision.  The heart surgery is the largest in the world with 1,000 beds and does 30 heart surgeries a day.   He has performed l5,000 heart surgeries (can you beat that?)  Fast Company has classified Narayana as one of the 50 innovative companies in the world

How can Dr. Shetty do it:

There are 3 foundations for this capacity of Dr. Shetty to cure many Indians (now about a billion, one of the most populous countries in the world)

1.  Economies of scale.  This is employed by large manufacturing companies and retailers.  Large volume can bring down costs, and exerts a tremendous force on the supplier to lower costs.  Thus cost of procedures in Shetty hospitals is much much lower than either govt or private hospital in India.

2.  Desk for  assisting the needy.

    1.  Working with  foundation such as Heart Foundation that assists patients who need heart bypass or other other expensive heart operations;

    2.  Assisting patients obtain funding/assistance from govt agencies or foundations that help the needy.  The patients need not worry about the money aspect, or turned down for treatment just because he does not have money.  All that patient's family have to worry about is how to make the patient well with their care.

   3.  Cross subsidy  -  60% of the patients of Dr Shetty pay the full amount, 20% pay premium because they can afford to pay;  10% pay a little, 10% are indigent and pay nothing.  The 80% who pay can shoulder the 20% who pay a little or nothing.

He was personal physician of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and did a heart surgery on her.  

   The Aravind hospital is another hospital that offer low cost cataract operation in India, organized by Dr. V.  (He is now dead)

  I hope that we can have this type of hospital in the Philippines.  Many large hospitals and many those that are being put for profit alone.

In the Philippines, it is noted that with the emergence of  world class hospitals:   SLMC, and TMC, the cost of medical care shot up.  The consolidation of hospitals by MVP group:   Riverside, Cardinal Santos, MMC was hoped to have brought economies of scale, but it did not.  The cost of health care merely went up.  Much of medical care in the Phil, amounting to more than P300 billion is 2011, came from out of the pocket.

  If the Lord wills it, I hope I can organize something like that of Dr. Shetty's hospital.  I hope I can muster enough number of former MBAH students who are MDs who are social entrepreneurs who can help me put a hospital just like what Dr. Shetty has put up.  Perhaps Dr. Vega  of Davao Medical Center can share his expertise in running a 2,000 bed hospital and putting up a heart and kidney center, a Director of NCMH, the current Usec and former congresswoman Dr. Garin?

Or can we just ask Dr. Shetty move in the Philippines.  So far he has made his group climb up to 30,000 beds.  He predicts that there will be shortage of health care personnel world wide.  The problem is how to make standardize procedures to lower costs.

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Are there MDs like Dr.Devi Shetty of India in the PHL?

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I must have made the mistake of teaching only opportunity seeking for   MD in MBA for Health in a leading GSB in Manila.  I should refocus my syllabus on making hospital care as social enterprise instead instead of molding them into the likes of tycoon.  We need to bring down health care cost in the PHL instead of following the opportunistic pricing/opportunity seeking model of business entrepreneurs as in US (as investigated by Steve Brill for Time Magazine)

We should go to the Doctor to the Barrio model (Dr. Flavier) or even hilots or herbolarios, to be strategic doctors, to use the herbs and food in distant barrio to cure the sick and the poor.

Or follow the Indian models:    Dr. V of the Aravind Hospital envisioned the hospital to be the McDonald of Eye Surgery.  They had operated on millions using operations management method.
and Dr Devi Shetty  of the Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH hospital)  He founded this in 2001 because his employer could not understand his vision.  Heart surgery in NH costs only the equivalent of $l,500 vs. $108,000 in US or $25,000 in the Phil. He also founded the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences  (RTIICS

 In Davao PHL, it is only $8,000.00  Dr. Shetty believes that costs can be reduced by as much as 50% in a decade by employing economies of scale Thus the costs in India can still go down to $800.00. That is something!

Can there be a philantropist Dr. like Dr. Shetty (most will think that that model is simply shit)?  Can we make health services:

1.  Be in the mold of social business; (the reverse of profit maximization business)

2.  Be operated in an efficient manner to bring down costs?

3.  Be compassionate.

There is no need to have medical tourism campaign if we give excellent medical care at very low costs.  Patients from Arab countries, US, UK, and South Africa visit NH and get quality care at low cost.