If complete testing were properly done, then figures could easily be 10 times for India: Prof. Nirmal K Ganguly, Former Director General, Indian Medical Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

No.PR-95 May 23, 2020 New Delhi If complete testing were properly done, then figures could easily be 10 times for India: Prof. Nirmal K Ganguly, Former Director General, Indian Medical Council of Medical Research (ICMR) New Delhi, 23rd May 2020: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized an interactive webinar on “Impact of COVID-19 on Health Infrastructure” with Prof. Nirmal K Ganguly, Former Director General, Indian Medical Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Dr. N Subramanian, Chair, Health Committee, PHD Chamber and Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals; Prof (Dr) Arvind Kumar, Chair, Centre of Chest Surgery and Director, Institute of Robotic Surgery at Sri Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), New Delhi and Prof. Bejon Mishra, Founder Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India. Prof. N K Ganguly, Former Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) while sharing some facts that India is doing 1 lac COVID 19 tests per day and the US is doing many more and so is for other counties, he emphasized If we were to follow minimum testing more the actual no. of positive symptomatic and asymptomatic Covid-19 cases would be 10 times higher. He also said that we should plan the testing around the rural area and poor as they are most vulnerable people with a lot of disadvantages like poor nutrition, lack of social distancing, and many other factors that lead us to look around for redistribution of our healthcare infrastructure. Prof. Ganguly also requested the Government to harmonize for a single regulatory framework as in such an emergency. He has also explained about the Smart Testing techniques and shared his focus on tracking and tracing to fight the pandemic. Dr. N Subramanian, Chair, Health Committee, PHD Chamber and Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals emphasized that it is a need to recreate the healthcare facilities without disrupting the flow of current treatment. He said they considered changing the dynamics of staff/ employees at all levels and have a backup for the manpower. Dr. Subramanian emphasized the passion of the healthcare workers & the importance of restoring the environment & social balance. He further said that this lockdown & pandemic has come up with a great opportunity to innovate in the future and a more healthy life. Prof. (Dr.) Arvind Kumar, Chair, Centre for Chest Surgery and Director, Institute of Robotic Surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) New Delhi while talking about the impact of the pandemic on health and humanity, said that every tragedy can teach us something to make future more shock resilient. He said we should all work together on the preventive steps to deal with this pandemic. Prof. Arvind advised every sector of the economy to rebuild on the Green Agenda and keep the environment clean as we must make our mother earth healthy which alone can keep such pandemics away or else they will continue to hound us in one form or the other. Prof. Bejon Misra, Founder, Partnerships of Safe Medicine (PSM) India specifically point out the highly underutilized infrastructure the nation has which should be connected & made accessible to patients and technology can play a major role on how to utilize it to its optimum capacity. Prof. Misra also pointed out that every year more than 2 Cr people go under the poverty line because of the high cost of healthcare expenditure which should not be the scenario and healthcare should be affordable & accessible to all by following the ethical practices. Mr. Pradeep Multani, Vice President, PHD Chamber in his welcome address shared some facts regarding the current Covid-19 situation related to the public & Private healthcare delivery system. He said that if the red tape will be removed than India will be the hospital of the world. He further added that after this phase of lockdown and social distancing comes to an end, the world’s largest democracy needs measures to promote “Health for all” by improving the Public Healthcare facilities to combat such myopia in the future. Mr. Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary-General PHD Chamber said that the Remote Sensing System, Smart Building Management system & Internet of Things have caused a radical change and that has been already adopted by the many emerging economies of the world. Mr. Sanyal urged to adopt these systems to fight against this type of pandemics in the future also. The session was moderated by Mr. Vivek Seigell, Principal Director, PHD Chamber, and was attended by more than 90 delegates. The session was sponsored by Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. Ends. Media Division PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry