People from all walks of life, including hundreds of boys and girls, came out in a procession in state capital Bhubaneswar.

Many of them were holding posters, banners and placards that had messages such as “Quit smoking and save society”, “Say no to tobacco” and “Smoking is injurious to health”.

Some were also seen posing as tobacco monsters by covering their faces with masks and wearing garlands bearing packets of tobacco products.

The rally, which was attended by more then 300 people, was organised by city-based Orissa Voluntary Health Association (OVA) as part of the nationwide campaign against tobacco use launched by various government and non-government organisations.

“The purpose of this rally was to create awareness about the ill effects of tobacco. Police and health department officials also participated in the rally,” Kshyamakar Swain, its president told IANS.

Similarly hundreds of NCC (National Cadet Corps) cadets and students carried out cycle rallies in Cuttack city, about 25 km from here, with the aim to create awareness among the masses about the hazards of smoking.

The World Health Organisation has declared May 31 as World No Tobacco Day and this year’s theme is “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on women”.

In India, the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to youngsters below 18 is banned.

But the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 2009 for India found that 8.3 percent of girls in the 13-15 age group consume some form of tobacco. Around 2.4 percent of the girls consume cigarettes and 7.2 percent consume other tobacco products.

Apparently there was alarm and panic on board the plane and doctor had to be called in.

After examining the “Housefull” producer, the doctor announced that he was not fit to travel and was advised to disembark. Salman’s flight had to leave without him Thursday after almost an hour’s delay.

After repeated attempts to contact him, Nadiadwala finally answered the phone Friday afternoon.

Sounding pale and weak, the producer said: “It was a condition I had been trying to suppress for some time now with antibiotics. Apparently the antibiotics turned hostile on me, and I didn’t even know it. When I was ready to take off for Dubai with Salman, I suddenly had an acute pain in my stomach. I just couldn’t bear it.”

The doctor got him off the flight and suggested a series of complicated tests.

Sajid said: “Apparently my white blood cell count has shot up at an alarming rate. That needs to be checked immediately. Now I’m completely bed-ridden for some time.”

Asked if this sudden withdrawal from Salman’s entourage miffed the star.

“Not at all!” said Sajid. “In fact he was the most concerned and persuaded me to stay back,” he added.

Representatives of the Haryana Civil Medical Services association, representing government doctors of the state, urged Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to intervene into the matter.

“In Haryana, the basic pay of a medical officer at the entry level is just Rs.17,490 – that of a class II officer. It is equal to the entry level basic pay of a nurse in the state and what an ayurvedic or a veterinary doctor is getting in Punjab,” Kamla Singh, the association’s president, told reporters here.

In Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, the entry level grade is of class I officer with a basic pay of Rs.21,000. This disparity in pay scale is causing frustration among all government doctors in Haryana and they are feeling betrayed at the hands of autocratic bureaucracy in the state, she added.

Besides the low salaries, doctors have to work in very hostile environment without proper machinery and facilities in the state civil hospitals, which is prompting them to switch the job very frequently, she said.

Last year, 800 new doctors were recruited and of them 200 have already resigned and many of the remaining 600 are on leave for a long time, she pointed out.

“We are calling our general body meeting May 30 at Rohtak to decide our further course of action. On that day all the nearly 2,250 doctors of the state will submit their resignation to the president and depending up on the circumstances and the government’s response these will be sent to the authorities concerned,” the association’s general secretary Rajesh Kalia said.

Both men and women subconsciously lower the pitch of their voice when they want to signal that they are attracted to another person, a study has shown, reports express.co.uk.

Researchers from Albright college in Pennsylvannia tested 48 male and female students, asking them to look at a picture and then leave a voicemail message for that person.

The more attractive the person in the photo, the lower was the tone of voice used in the answerphone message by both men and women.

“When a woman lowers her voice, it may be perceived as her attempt to sound more seductive or attractive and therefore serves as a signal of her romantic interest,” a researcher Susan Hughes was quoted as saying.

The central government had challenged a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) order that asked it to pay Rs.1 lakh in damages to a widow who lost her daughter due to administration of wrong medicine.

Justice S. Muralidhar imposed an exemplary cost of Rs.1 lakh on the government for prolonging the agony of the victim’s mother and preventing her from getting compensation for almost two years.

‘This court is constrained to observe that this is a vexatious litigation needlessly pursued by the central government. Instead of accepting the finding of the NHRC and agreeing to pay token compensation awarded to the aggrieved, it has dragged her to this court, thus prolonging her agony and preventing her from getting the compensation amount for over two years,’ the court said.

The NHRC had directed the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) to pay a compensation to the mother of 28-year-old Sunita, who died due to negligence of the government dispensary which gave her a wrong medicine.

Sunita was prescribed a vitamin B complex drug during the course of a routine check-up at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

Being government’s health service beneficiary, she sought the medicine from a pharmacy at a CGHS dispensary, which wrongly gave her a psychotic drug.

‘Administering a wrong medicine to an otherwise healthy person resulting into an irreversible deterioration of such person’s health was far too serious a violation of that person’s right to life under Article 21 of the constitution,’ the court ruled.

‘The CBI today (Thursday) registered a disproportionate assets case against Desai. He has been found to be owning assets worth Rs.24 crore,’ CBI Director Ashwani Kumar told reporters.

‘The agency is yet to ascertain how much of this wealth is legitimate and how much illegitimate,’ he said, adding some of these assets were in the name of Desai’s mother and some in the name of his wife.

Desai was arrested April 22 on charges of colluding with touts and others to obtain bribe from a private medical college in Patiala to grant it permission to admit a fresh batch of students. He is presently in judicial custody.

The CBI team has already seized the bribe money of Rs.2 crore and has arrested four people, including Desai, in the case.

‘The investigation has revealed that Desai had shown favour to the medical college by wielding his influence over the inspection teams sent to examine its infrastructural and academic facilities and to ascertain if its recognition by the MCI needs to be continued,’ the CBI chief said.

An official statement by CBI said Desai and his accomplices had devised a novel method to obtain bribe from medical colleges. Desai would send the inspection team to a medical college and hospital and would secure a damning report on lack of infrastructural and academic facilities in the college, it said.

Desai and his accomplices would then threaten the college with derecognition on the basis of adverse report and enter into negotiation with the college management for getting illegal gratification, the statement said.

Based upon the result of negotiations, Desai would order second inspection of the college and extend its recognition.

Following the registration of the first case, the CBI had invited complaints from public and the medical fraternity who might be in the know of things about Desai’s demands for money from various medical colleges.

The public notice has yielded 154 cases till date, said Ashwani Kumar, adding that the agency is verifying all those complaints.

‘Increased pressure puts the forefoot at risk of injuries such as stress fractures, bunions and hammer toes. Knee pain is also common when high heels are involved,’ Ashish Jain, M.S. (orthopaedics), consultant joint replacement specialist at Max Hospital, told IANS.

‘The heel height causes increased strain on the knee joint and associated tendons. The quadriceps muscle group in the front of the thigh works harder, increasing pressure on the kneecap by up to 26 percent.’

‘This can ultimately increase the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee and quadriceps tendonitis,’ Jain added.

Jain also spoke of other hazards.

He revealed that when the heel is constantly elevated, the calf muscle and Achilles tendon can contract and shorten. Wearing high heels habitually can result in a woman not being able to tolerate a flat shoe. On occasions, this can even require surgery to lengthen the Achilles tendon.

Sometimes the tight fit of many heels will force the toes to conform to its shape. The pressure of the shoe itself can cause corns to form. Furthermore, the compression of the metatarsal bones can cause pressure on the nerves that run between them.

‘The toenails are also at risk as the incidence of in-growing toenails and nail infections is higher in heel wearers. In-growing toenails can be very painful, unsightly and require surgery to correct,’ Jain added.

Women feel high heels like gladiator sandals, tip toes and others add a touch of elegance and glamour to one’s overall style and the legs appear longer and slimmer. Thus, to look special in that chic footwear and not experience painful after effects, many are going in for dermal fillers.

‘It has been observed that women are undergoing filler injections to plump up the underside of their feet, thus filling them out and providing padding inside the foot to relieve the pain that comes from wearing high heels,’ said Satish Bhatia, dermatologist and skin surgeon, Lady Ratan Tata Medical and Research Centre.

‘This trend is rising despite the fact that the effect does not usually last for more than six-seven months,’ Bhatia added.

Given that certain industries like hospitality, aviation and fashion place a premium on height and appearance, wearing heels becomes a norm, thus making women opt for the expensive solution to ease pain arising out of use of high heels.

‘The dermal filler injection is injected in the ball of the foot to ease the pain caused by wearing high heels. The injection costs between Rs.12,000 and Rs.15,000,’ he added.

Rajesh Malhotra, professor of orthopaedics, AIIMS, threw light on a few other ways of curing the pain arising out of extended use of stilettos.

‘The best way to avoid pain is that one stops wearing high heels at all because they are the cause of the problem. But if that is not possible then there are a few treatments,’ he said.

‘The entire body pressure is on the ball of the foot; so among many treatments one is that we put the metatarsal bar on the sole of the footwear so that the entire body weight is not on the ball of the foot, which results in less pain,’ Malhotra told IANS.

If it is very essential to wear heels, the maximum height advised by doctors is not more than an inch.

‘The height of the heel also changes the amount of weight on the forefoot. A one-inch heel will increase the pressure by 22 percent, a two-inch heel by 57 percent and a three-inch heel by 76 percent. So anything not more than an inch is fine,’ said Jain.

(Ruchika Kher can be contacted at ruchika.k@ians.in)

A team of Greenpeace activists surveyed Mayapuri scrapyard in the morning and said radiation levels were much lower than last week.

“As of now radiation levels are low but not normal. Bringing them to normal background levels involves detailed handling, checks and re-checks and we need to discuss the way forward,” a Greenpeace spokesperson said.

The organisation conducted a survey of the scrap market May 14 to check gamma radiation and verify government claims that the area was back to normal background levels.

Greenpeace identified six hotspots with considerably elevated radiation levels. Of these, two spots had radiation 5,000 times more than the normal background level, it said.

Following this, a team from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Narora Atomic Power Station was decontaminating the area.

According to Greenpeace, the Mayapuri incident should be treated as a wake-up call.

“All the loopholes in the nuclear regulatory system need to be identified and dealt with. We are simply unprepared for the civilian nuclear expansion the government is currently proposing,” said Karuna Raina, anti-nuclear campaigner of Greenpeace India.

Police said the source of the radiation leak last month was a radioactive gamma cell containing Cobalt-60, auctioned as scrap by Delhi University’s chemistry department two months ago.

One victim died while six people exposed to the radioactive Cobalt-60 are still undergoing anti-radiation treatment in a hospital.

Inaugurating it at the Naigaon police headquarters Tuesday evening, Home Minister R.R. Patil said the canteen would help police personnel remain healthy and fit.

‘There are times when policemen do not get proper food while they are on duty … on occasions like Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja or Navratri. On such occasions, they will be delivered lunch box at their place of duty,’ Patil said.

Added Mumbai Police Commissioner D. Sivanandan: ‘Owing to odd working hours, most policemen end up having cheap and unhygienic roadside food. It is essential that policemen consume healthy food, at least once a day.

‘That is the reason why we thought of setting up a canteen that serves low calorie and healthy food.’

Sivanandan said the canteen will run under the guidance of food experts and diet consultants who will chart out the menu.

‘This canteen is our pilot project and we plan to replicate the same model at three-four other locations in the next few months,’ he said.

Besides serving food on the premises, the police canteen will also facilitate delivery of lunch boxes to policemen on duty whenever the need arises.

The canteen contract has been awarded to ecotel hotelier Vitthal Kamat.

‘We are all aware how policemen work under stress. My idea is to provide them a healthy breakfast that would enable them to sustain the entire day. If they can manage to have other meals also here, nothing like it,’ Kamat said.

But much to the surprise of the gathering, the canteen served piping hot ‘jalebis’ and Mumbai’s all-time favourite ‘vada-paavs’, both of which fall in the high-calorie category.

‘Don’t worry. All this is only for today. We are not going to serve these on a regular basis,’ Sivanandan said.

In an angry letter to the BVC Dean, Abdul Samad, PETA India’s Vivisection Campaign Coordinator Anuradha Srivastava said the college could use modern alternative methods or existing preserved specimens instead of going ahead with the live calf embalming procedure.

‘In this (live) procedure, the calf’s jugular vein and carotid artery are cut in full view of the students even as the animal dies slowly and painfully,’ she pointed out.

Then, a Formalin solution is introduced into the blood vessels to preserve the cadaver for later study, Srivastava said, recalling her own experiences as a veterinary student.

‘This traumatizing experience did not make me a better veterinarian, and did not contribute to my understanding of anatomy nor did it equip me to better care for animal patients,’ she said.

Srivastava said that killing and embalming of animals is cruel and unnecessary and such a live procedure is not carried out in any accredited veterinary college in western countries. ‘It should not be carried out in India also,’ she demanded.

She said that besides her own experience, research has found that students forced to participate in or observe such activities may suffer from psychological trauma, which in turn hamper’s their ability to learn the intended course.

PETA has sent copies of its representation to the vice-chancellor of the Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University.

The grants will cover development of a low-cost cell phone microscope to diagnose malaria, study of the strategic placement of insect-eating plants to reduce insect-borne diseases, and investigation of nanoparticles to release vaccines when they come in contact with human sweat.

‘Grand Challenges Explorations continues to generate unique and creative ways to tackle global health issues,’ said Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Programme.

‘We are convinced that some of these ideas will lead to new innovations and eventually solutions that will save lives.’

Grand Challenges Explorations is a five-year, $100 million initiative to promote innovation in global health.

It is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative which is supported by the Gates Foundation to achieve major breakthroughs in global health.

The interphone report, which has been largely funded by the mobile phone industry, was based on interviews in 13 countries over 10 years with 5,000 brain cancer victims or a friend or relative of those who had died or were too ill to be quizzed, reports express.co.uk.

It also found out that the heaviest user category were in greater danger of developing malignant glioma tumours, which account for half of all brain tumours in the Britain.

“It’s time for the government to put warnings on mobile phone packaging and to issue cautions over children, similar to those in other countries,” said Grahame Blackwell, a spokesman for health charity WiredChild.

“Parents just don’t realise the dangers, which go beyond brain tumours, and the government needs to inform them because the manufacturers certainly won’t,” he added.

The patient, a resident of Changsha of Hunan province, was suffering from ovarian cancer. Her doctor told her to buy Lusun Pian for 213 yuan per bottle, China Daily reported Monday.

She later found out the medicine cost only 15.5 yuan per bottle to the manufacturing company.

Beijing News said the hospital bought the drug at 136 yuan, the guiding price for the medicine in Hunan province, from drug sales representatives who bought them at between 30 and 40 yuan.

The committee will serve for one year, Health Secretary Sujatha Rao said.

The law ministry had notified the ordinance.

The government decided to bring the ordinance after a crisis hit the regulatory body after its president Ketan Desai was arrested April 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.2 crore to recognise a medical college in Punjab though it did not meet MCI standards.

The Gujarat government has placed Desai under suspension.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is well aware that the chances of mosquito breeding have increased due to large-scale construction activities all across the capital.

‘There are maximum chances of mosquito breeding in view of large-scale constructions in the city, but we are aware of it. We have a surveillance team at every construction site for checking,’ municipal health officer N.K. Yadav told IANS.

He said the civic body began a public awareness campaign against mosquito breeding in February and deployed 3,500 domestic breeding checkers in April, well ahead of schedule.

He said keeping in mind that the Games Village site is near the Akshardham Temple in East Delhi on the banks of the river Yamuna, an area which is prone to mosquito breeding, the MCD has begun spraying and fumigating the area.

Also, MCD officials feel that congested areas besides unauthorised colonies might pose ‘difficulty’ for the civic body in its bid to put the situation under control in October.

‘Several departments like sanitation and also Delhi Jal Board have been shot off letters to take measures while collecting water and cleaning drainage,’ Yadav said.

At a recent meeting on how to check the spread of diseases during the Games scheduled for Oct 3-14, Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra said attention should be paid to unauthorised colonies where the maximum number of cases are reported.

He also asked the irrigation and flood control department and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation to ensure the free flow of water in these colonies.

Prem Lata Kataria, the MCD’s director of primary education, said: ‘Over 1,000 nodal teachers have been designated in the civic body’s schools to coordinate efforts for prevention and control of vector and water-borne diseases.’

In the post-monsoon phase, dengue and malaria claim nearly 30 lives in the city and around 1,000 people are infected every year on an average.

Officials said to tackle malaria and dengue during the Games, the MCD is also contemplating circulating advisories among visitors to encourage the use of mosquito repellants.

However, the Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) are not happy with what the civic body is currently doing to make sure that nobody is inflicted with dengue or malaria during the Games.

‘They are organising some camps in the locality for public awareness but the whole process seems to be inadequate, considering the fact that the whole city has been dug up for the Games. Even domestic breeding checkers have not visited the area,’ said Atul Goyal, general secretary of the Karol Bagh RWA.

Goyal said keeping in mind the prestige of the country, the civic body should remain alert, start a door-to-door campaign to check mosquito breeding and clean up the choked drains.

In infrastructure-related works, the MCD is engaged in flyover construction, pavement beautification and in improving basic civic amenities during the mega-sporting event.

(Rajeev Ranjan Dwivedi can be contacted at rajeev.r@ians.in)

According to the sources, a seven-member board of eminent doctors

like former director of AIIMS P.Venugopal, senior cardiologist K.K. Talwar and M.S. Valiathan will soon replace MCI.

The decision came after MCI president Ketan Desai was arrested April 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.2 crore to recognise a medical college in Punjab though it did not meet MCI standards. His resignation was forwarded to the health ministry Wednesday.

‘We are examining what can be done,’ Health Secretary Sujatha Rao said Friday. The MCI was set up by an act of parliament in 1956, she explained, adding that it did not empower the government which has to work within ‘a certain legal framework’.

‘The government should have power to give directions to the MCI for what it has to do. If they do something wrong, we can take action,’ Rao said, speaking to media persons. Since such a crisis was never witnessed before, the government ‘is examining what can be done’, she added.

The MCI issue was discussed in the cabinet meeting Thursday and an ordinance to replace the council by a board of eminent doctors approved, according to health ministry sources. However, ministry officials remained tight-lipped on the issue, saying that a final decision will be announced soon.

‘There is a crisis. Our inability to respond to it brought out the shortcomings in the medical council act,’ Rao said.

‘The 1956 act did not empower us. It has been set up by parliament.. there is a certain legal framework in which we can work. Such crisis was never witnessed before. So we are examining what can be done,’ she said.

Hinting at legislative changes in the offing, Rao said that there will be ‘a legislative response to what has happened’. A draft law to regulate medical education in the country would be ready within a month, Rao said.

‘Till that time it happens, something has to be done. The government cannot keep quiet.’

Commenting on the increasing corrupt practices in medical bodies, Rao said a clean-up was needed in all councils. ‘None of the councils is working properly,’ she said.

However, she assured that the interests of students will not be affected in any way.

The MCI, a statutory body tasked to oversee the standards of medical education in India, grants recognition to medical degrees, gives accreditation to medical colleges, registers medical practitioners and monitors medical practice in the country.

–Indo-Asian-News Service

ao/vd/srj/vt

“Their condition is clinically stable and free of any infection or bleeding… (They will be) released from the hospital in a day or two,” Lt. Gen. Naresh Kumar said,

Kumar is the commandant of the army’s Research and Referral hospital in the national capital where Deepak Jain, 32, and Ajay Jain, 40, were admitted last month with low blood counts due to bone marrow suppression following exposure to Cobalt-60 at a scrap shop in Mayapuri of the city.

“Ajay Jain’s wound is healing well. Doctors will continue to closely monitor the condition of the two patients,” he said.

“Volunteer donors having 100 percent matching Human Lymphocyte Antigen (HLA) have been kept on standby for bone marrow transplant if their condition worsens,” Kumar added.

The government has decided to dissolve MCI following the resignation of its president Ketan Desai. The name of former All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director P. Venugopal is believed to figure in the list of members appointed to the panel.

The cabinet had Thursday approved an ordinance giving the health ministry higher control over the MCI, a body which regulates medical colleges in the country.

Desai was arrested April 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.2 crore in return for giving recognition to a medical college in Punjab though it did not meet MCI standards. His resignation from MCI was forwarded to the health ministry this week.

‘Earlier I underwent 17 operations – on my brain, eyes and 11 of them on my trachea,’ said Asaad, sporting a broad smile as he recovers after a successful surgery at the Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon bordering Delhi.

In 2006, Asaad met with a near fatal car accident. He was kept on the ventilator for 20 days. The holes made for ventilator support created two abnormal cavities in his trachea and this led to complications like food getting into the windpipe and choking him. The trachea is a tube-like portion of the breathing or respiratory tract that connects the voice box with the bronchial part of the lungs.

Though the surgeries – in Iraq as well as other countries – on his brain and eyes were successful after a few attempts, the severe condition of the trachea made him disillusioned.

‘I went to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and got my surgeries done there. But all of them were failed attempts. I was losing hope,’ Asaad, clad in an orange T-shirt and blue track pants, told IANS in an interview.

With every unsuccessful surgery his condition worsened, as 11 operations in the same area added to complications.

And then he came to India.

A team of doctors headed by Kushagra Katariya, CEO and chief cardiothoracic surgeon, and including Deepak Sarin, consultant on head and neck surgery, and Hassan Tehrani, head of medical services, from the Artemis Health Institute, conducted the operation last month.

‘This was my last-ditch effort; I knew a person who was treated by doctor Tehrani and he told me to give my last shot here. When I spoke to Tehrani, he told me that in this condition I have a 90 percent chance of successful surgery. This was more than enough for me to undertake this long journey to India,’ Asaad said.

Showing the deep hole on his stomach, Asaad said: ‘Now I can eat from my mouth.’

He now plans to buy T-shirts as in the last four years he wore only high necks. ‘People kept asking me about these scars and the holes on my throat. Now I can walk freely,’ Asaad told IANS.

Asaad’s mother too is thanking the almighty for his recovery.

‘I am happy now my son can eat properly; in these last four years the food used to go through a pipe attached directly to his stomach, now he can eat properly,’ she added

Katariya said: ‘It was a four-hour-long surgery; we were confident and clear about what needed to be done. Though it was an unusual case we have treated similar cases before. We are glad that he can now lead a healthy life.’

Sarin said: ‘The structure of Asaad’s neck was completely distorted due to the failed surgeries earlier. The rarity of the case was due to the two abnormal openings in the throat region. The surgery was a challenge, but we were confident.’

Asaad, who was discharged from hospital a few days back, did not like the guest house he was given and decided to come back to stay at the hospital.

‘The doctors here are very nice; everybody is concerned about me,’ Asaad further added.

He stated that he has only happy memories of India. Preparing to leave for his country, he said he will be back in another six months.

(Sugandha Pathak can be contacted at sugandha.p@ians.in)

‘The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha. It will be passed in the Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session,’ Azad said Thursday at the inauguration of a three-day workshop of the national initiative for patient safety (NIPS) organised by All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

The bill will ensure safer health practices by regulating clinics and nursing homes across the country, he added.

Stating that patients’ safety is the casualty in over-burdened public health institutions, the minister said the passing of the bill will be a step in rectifying the situation.

‘Through this bill we are aspiring to create a regulatory framework for all clinical establishments that would be entirely patient centric,’ he added.

Speaking about other initiatives in the direction, he said a national policy for infection control and patient safety was being formulated by the health ministry to promote safe practices in the health sector.

‘An expert level group has prepared a draft concept paper on National Infection Control and Patient Safety Policy. This is now being examined by the ministry for possible implementations on different levels of health care in the country,’ Azad said.

Stressing on the need for comprehensive data on causes of medical errors, the minister called upon the hospitals to involve in analysis of errors.

‘In India, the health sector is largely unregulated. Therefore, the data about patient’s safety is sketchy,’ he observed.

‘We need to encourage both hospital-based and community-based studies for better accuracy in getting data in medical errors,’ he added.