NINETEEN MONTHS INTO the pandemic, hospitals across India have earned battle scars. Yet they have renewed, reformed and redefined themselves. Having faced tough times in the face of unprecedented financial stress, huge patient loads and fatalities, and a sharp decline in revenues, hospitals learnt their lessons early on and started implementing policies that could redefine the way health care is managed.
For instance, universal masking and hand washing became institutionalised. Screening of patients and staff on a regular basis to minimise the risk of cross-contamination has become a priority across most hospitals. As we move on into the next year, it is pertinent to know that the ‘next normal’ for health care sector will look nothing like the ‘normal’ we leave behind.
THE WEEK’s Best Hospitals Webinar, 2021, based on the theme—‘Health of our healers’, discussed how our hospitals and the entire medical fraternity came together as one, when dealing with a pandemic.
Eminent panelists including Dr H. Sudarshan Ballal, chairman, Manipal Hospitals; Dr Reshma Tewari, chief, critical care unit, Artemis Hospitals; Harish Manian, CEO, MGM Healthcare and Dr Arvind Sharma, head of the department of neurology and stroke specialist, Zydus Hospitals, Ahmedabad, spoke about how they had reformed their hospitals to align them with the changing realities induced by the pandemic.
THE WEEK’s 18th edition of the Best Hospitals of India survey and rankings is a way of honouring our doctors and health care workers who gave their all in the fight against the pandemic, while ensuring that their patients came first.
Held at The Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, Mumbai, the ceremony was graced by the Honourable Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who acknowledged the “herculean task of shortlisting the best hospitals from across India” and suggested the inclusion of a new parameter—‘help extended to the needy’ in future surveys.
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“Hospitals across India became warriors during the pandemic. Right from nurses and the ward boys to doctors and other medical specialists went beyond their call of duty to help those who fell prey to the novel coronavirus. As we move forward and into the next year, it is important that hospitals leverage their power and expertise towards the service of the poorest of the poor in India and ensure that nobody is left out from quality health care,” said Koshyari.
The chief guest at the event, Professor K. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) emphasised on the realignment of public health infrastructure and policies to bring them in line with the country’s changing realities, so that quality and affordable health care reaches the last mile and covers those in the remotest parts of the country.
Apollo Hospitals (Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad), Medanta Medicity (Delhi NCR), Manipal Hospitals (Bengaluru), Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute, Mumbai, Zydus Hospitals (Ahmedabad) and Alexis Multispecialty Hospital (Nagpur) emerged as the winners of the Best Hospitals of India, 2021.
Under the regional categories, Medanta—The Medicity, emerged the winner in the north; in the west it was Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute; and in the east, Apollo Hospitals bagged the Best Hospital Award.