December 2019

Catering to the healthcare needs of approximately 8000 people monthly, the Vcare centre saves Rs 2 crore of healthcare expenses spent by people. Equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities, VCare, also plans to fundraise Rs 2 crore for expansion of its facilities.
Operational under the banner of Falah-e-Aam Trust, VCare has become synonymous with model healthcare across Kalyan and adjoining areas where patients’ receive basic healthcare facilities at an affordable lower cost.

What are your views on India’s GDP spending on healthcare?
India being a developing country tagged as ‘Emerging Economy’ has been spending less than 2% of GDP on healthcare which is a miniscule proportion and far below when compared to other nations. India has to set its priorities right considering the state of malnutrition in general, stupendous population and its huge area. Though the government has taken measures from a prevention perspective, but help and assistance available for medical care is far below the requirement of such a huge country.

Do you think our healthcare spending, i.e. less than 2 percent of the GDP, is way too less and we need to dole out more to enhance public healthcare in India?
Definitely, we need to increase our spending in public healthcare especially since we have largest burden of malnourished and tuberculosis patients. Due to very low accessibility and affordability of healthcare services, people in India die of simple curable diseases like diarrhoea in rural area, which is unheard of in other comparable countries.

What are your views on privatization of healthcare in India? What are the pros and cons?
The private sector in rural areas, is no position to offer healthcare solutions and hence it’s completely dependent on the government. For ‘Preventive Medicine’ privatisation does not hold any promise to benefit for general public. But in urban areas with high disease burden, we see a possibility of the private sector to deliver. One needs to appreciate that government can provide preventive and basic health care but when it comes to specialty and super specialty segments (which require lots of funds and highly trained and skilled human resources), the role of private sector comes to the fore and is viable solution may be coupled with Health Insurance players in the market place. So in nutshell privatisation has good role to play in urban setting, however same may not be true for rural healthcare scenario.

VCare centre is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities; how do you source/fund the equipment while still maintain a cost effective / subsidized healthcare delivery?
Vcare is equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities and machines, which is completely funded by local population through donation. It simply works on the principal of healthcare for people by people. Vcare operations are self -sustainable as the property in which the centre is housed is owned by us, interest free purchase of all equipment (no bank liabilities) and economy of bulk operations (which cuts the operational cost by a great margin).
Vcare is ‘Not for Profit’ facility but, whatever little (surplus) revenue that’s generated after taking care of expenditure, is ploughed back for development, expansion and modernisation of the facility.

Please share some cases as to how / where VCARE has created an impact on the lives of people.
In a very short span of time, VCare has become a milestone and a house hold name in Kalyan city and the peripheral areas. This itself demonstrates its impact on the social environment in general. Just to illustrate take an example of VCare Consultants’ OPD; today the total cost of visiting a Consultant (MD/MS) followed by investigation and prescribed medications cost an individual between INRs. 3000-4000; but this entire package in VCare cost an individual just INR 800-1000 with same or rather better quality of care.
People from Kalyan and all nearby villages (in the vicinity of Kalyan city) are thronging to VCare centre for all their all healthcare need. Today, we are catering to about 8000 patients per month. Such a professionally managed medical facility is open to all caste creed and religions. This initiative has created lot of ‘Good Will’ for the minority citizens of Kalyan.

On an average how many people would visit the centre. Are you planning to replicate this in other areas of Mumbai?
On an average 250-300 people visit the centre on daily basis for diagnostic n medical needs. About 8000 patients are being benefited by this centre every month. It is important to note that through VCare, the community is annually saving about 2 Rs crore of healthcare expenditure. Till date, we have performed over one lakh tests, 25,000 sonography and 30,000 X-rays in merely two years’ time. Currently it’s the largest non-government centre in Kalyan in terms of volume of footfalls.
It’s definitely replicable at other cities as well. We are planning to spread this model to other cities especially our pathology facility which is going to get NABL accreditation in few months.

Can you share details on nature of assistance provided by volunteers, sponsors and donors?
Ours is mostly locally funded organization but need more funds for upcoming projects like Vcare dental clinic, OPG, mammography, stress test, PFT and dialysis centre. Currently, we need around Rs 2 crore to complete our new projects on the anvil.

What is your opinion on approaching government for eliciting the CSR funds?
This is much appreciated indeed. The cash rich corporate sector can provide lot of assistance through CSR and contribute handsomely to the Indian Healthcare sector.

About Moin Don: Recipient of ‘Pharma Ratan 2016’ Award for Lifetime Achievement and for his contribution to Drug Safety & PV in India at the hands of Drug Controller General, India Trainer & Facilitator for; – FDA Inspector’s Training – Govt. of India’s DCGI /PVPI Pan India Training Program – UMC Asia Pacific PV Training Course – Ukrainian Health Authorities, Mr Moin has about 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacist by education, Moin is one of the most well-known ‘Pharmacovigilance Professionals’ in Asia Pacific. He has rich hands on experience of practically every facet of Industrial Pharmacovigilance, while serving reputed international pharma companies like Sanofi Aventis, Dr. Reddys, and his last assignment with Johnson & Johnson as Regional PV QA Director for Asia Pacific.