International Forum on Patient Safety and Access to Safe Online Pharmacies
Tentative AGENDA
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Constitution of Committee to address the issues of Faulty ASR Hip Implants
February: In a letter from the office of the Drug Controller General of India, Founder trustee-Consumer Online Foundation Mr. Bejon Misra gets recognised by Government of India. Attached are the details of a Committee constituted by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare vide X.11035/25/2015-DFQC dated 8th February, 2017 to address the issues of Faulty ASR Hip Implants manufactured by M/s DePuy International Ltd., U.K. Consumer Online Foundation is a part of this committee. Committee Details
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FICCI launches self-regulation code of conduct for e-pharmacy sector
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) today announced the launch of Self-regulation Code of Conduct for the E pharmacy sector in the presence of key stakeholders here. Accessibility, affordability and lack of awareness are the major challenges for last mile access to medicines. These barriers could be effectively overcome by adopting technology, specifically the Internet, into the healthcare system. Over the last one year, E-pharmacy has come up as a significant channel to provide last mile access to medicines. This will most importantly benefit patients of chronic diseases, elderly patients and sick patients who are not in a condition to go out to find a pharmacy. The E-Pharmacy model provides tracking and traceability of medicines, addressing the problem of counterfeit medicines, consumption of drugs without prescription, tax loss and provides value added services for consumer empowerment in healthcare, which are well aligned with Digital India initiative of our Prime Minister with a vision to transform the country into a digitally empowered society…read more
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Hunt for the ‘Most Consumer Friendly State’ begins
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of West Bengal extended their support by hosting the Regional Conference on ‘Criteria for Measuring the Most Consumer Friendly State(s) in India’ organized by the Consumer Online Foundation in New Delhi. The event took place at the Kreta Suraksha Bhawan on Tuesday. Sadhan Pande, Minister In charge of Consumer Affairs, Self-help Group and Self Employment, Government of West Bengal said, “I accepted Mr. Misra’s proposal immediately because this will be an eye-opener when the report is published, it will tell us which state is the most consumers friendly. He lashed out at the Central Government and expressed his worries, “I am surprised that the Government of India is not putting stress on the consumer affairs. Who will listen to the problems of the common man? Where does he go? So the consumer movement will have to come in a big manner.” Pandey also expressed his concern about the Prime Minister’s attitude towards consumer affairs. He said, “The Prime Minister (of India) have spoken to Indian’s abroad but have not looked into this matter, have not attended a single meeting in Delhi with the Consumer Affairs Minister.” He, however, showered praises on his own department and state, “We are doing our best in spite of the financial difficulties, and we had two consumer courts previously, now we have three. We have asked the Central Government to give some statutory power to the grievance court so everyone is served justice (on wealthy people ignoring calls by the grievance courts.)” West Bengal is the only state to have an Independent Ministry for Consumer Affairs and boasts of a Consumer Assistance Bureau, financed by the State Government. In his speech, Satish Chandra Tewary, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal said, “We have our own articulated cartoons apart from the ones by Jaago Grahak Jaago. They are drawn by Chandi Lahiri and we would be increasing them in order to inform and educate all the consumers.” A Subbiah, Secretary to the State, Government of West Bengal claimed, “We are a strong contender if not the only one for the prize.” He added, “We have sensitized or offices and officials by providing them with proper training. The Number of cases has increased in the last three years and we need the Central Government’s help to carry on with the movement.” Surinder Singh, Director In-Charge, National Institute of Biologicals, Government of India mentioned, “The very objective of quality healthcare is to look after the patient’s safety. Communication is the most important factor.” P C Jha, Vice Chairperson, Consumer Online Foundation, New Delhi said, “A wide gap exists between what should be done and what have been done so far.” Bejon Kumar Misra, Founder, COF and the man in charge of this mission said “We are doing this project to bring out the truth to the forefront.” The winner of this prize will be announced on March 2016. Delegates from Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha along with other dignitaries both from this state and its neighbors also attended this meeting. source http://www.newkerala.com/news/2015/fullnews-51435.html
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Who governs ‘surrogate ads’ for alcohol?
New Delhi, May 13: Mineral water, sodas, music and sports franchises are among the common avenues taken by alcohol manufacturers to advertise their brands. So what is new in this? Nothing. But what is befuddling those in power as well as the moral police is how ‘surrogate advertising’ can be monitored in the absence of overarching legislation. At the Centre, the buck is passed on between ministries and sometimes to respective States. This is even as consumer activists urging the Government to frame a central legislation, even if effective implementation will rest with the State Governments. In fact, the self-regulating Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) already has a code on brand extension. “Surrogate advertising is not allowed as per law but we have been urging the Government to start taking legal action against liquor brands that violate these providers and are habitual offenders,” said Bejon Misra, Founder, Consumer Online Foundation. Regulation of such advertising appeared to fall under the jurisdiction of at least five Ministries – Consumer Affairs, Health, Information & Broadcasting (I&B), IT and Social Justice and Empowerment. “There are ambiguous court rulings on the matter where alcohol manufacturers state that the logo is the identity of the brand and using it on products other than alcohol is a legitimate business activity. So it’s mainly down to legal interpretation and in time will need to be settled by courts to establish a stated position,” a senior Government official told BusinessLine. He added any concerted effort to clamp down on the practice would have to be led by the Health Ministry, which took the lead in curbing cigarette/tobacco advertising. Another official pointed out that Section 2(r) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 outlined ‘unfair trade practices’ for sales maximisation of a good or service and provided legal recourse for consumers if suppliers were found to have engaged in misleading advertisements. “Though it does not explicitly mention surrogate advertising, sellers could be prosecuted depending on how a case is presented. That said, if mineral water advertised by an alcohol company meets requisite standards, it’s a murky area,” he said, adding new legislation might not serve any purpose and could lead to inter-sectoral conflicts. Direct advertising of alcoholic beverages is banned in India but private channels have often permitted surrogate advertising. “We need to have a comprehensive Central Law that regulates various aspects of alcohol consumption and promotion,” said Monika Arora, Health Promotion & Associate Professor, Public Health Foundation of India. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/who-governs-surrogate-ads-for-alcohol/article7202285.ece
Measuring the Most Consumer-Friendly State in India
INTRODUCTION: We are pleased to inform you that on 10th March 2015 as per our scheduled activity, we launched the project to understand the various matrix to be adopted to measure the Consumer Friendly Index of the States in India at Chennai. The all stakeholder consultation was inaugurated by Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of Partnership for Safe Medicines India and Former Chief Information Commissioner of India, Dr. V. Prakash, Distinguished Scientist of CSIR India, Dr. Surinder Singh, Director Incharge, National Institute of Biologicals and Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, IAS, Commissioner Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. We had more than 100 participants representing leading consumer organisations from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana including industry associations and Government officials. [fruitful_tabs type=”default” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”Chennai”] Measuring the Most Consumer-Friendly State in India We are pleased to inform you that on 10th March 2015 as per our scheduled activity, we launched the project to understand the various matrix to be adopted to measure the Consumer Friendly Index of the States in India at Chennai. The all stakeholder consultation was inaugurated by Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of Partnership for Safe Medicines India and Former Chief Information Commissioner of India, Dr. V. Prakash, Distinguished Scientist of CSIR India, Dr. Surinder Singh, Director Incharge, National Institute of Biologicals and Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, IAS, Commissioner Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. We had more than 100 participants representing leading consumer organisations from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana including industry associations and Government officials. Agenda>>> Concept Note>>> Chennai Report>>> Event Pictures>>> [/fruitful_tab] [fruitful_tab title=”Kolkata”] Hunt for the ‘Most Consumer Friendly State’ begins The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of West Bengal extended their support by hosting the Regional Conference on ‘Criteria for Measuring the Most Consumer Friendly State(s) in India’ organized by the Consumer Online Foundation in New Delhi. The event took place at the Kreta Suraksha Bhawan on Tuesday. Sadhan Pande, Minister In charge of Consumer Affairs, Self-help Group and Self Employment, Government of West Bengal said, “I accepted Mr. Misra’s proposal immediately because this will be an eye-opener when the report is published, it will tell us which state is the most consumers friendly. He lashed out at the Central Government and expressed his worries, “I am surprised that the Government of India is not putting stress on the consumer affairs. Who will listen to the problems of the common man? Where does he go? So the consumer movement will have to come in a big manner.” Pandey also expressed his concern about the Prime Minister’s attitude towards consumer affairs. He said, “The Prime Minister (of India) have spoken to Indian’s abroad but have not looked into this matter, have not attended a single meeting in Delhi with the Consumer Affairs Minister.” He, however, showered praises on his own department and state, “We are doing our best in spite of the financial difficulties, and we had two consumer courts previously, now we have three. We have asked the Central Government to give some statutory power to the grievance court so everyone is served justice (on wealthy people ignoring calls by the grievance courts.)” West Bengal is the only state to have an Independent Ministry for Consumer Affairs and boasts of a Consumer Assistance Bureau, financed by the State Government. In his speech, Satish Chandra Tewary, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal said, “We have our own articulated cartoons apart from the ones by Jaago Grahak Jaago. They are drawn by Chandi Lahiri and we would be increasing them in order to inform and educate all the consumers.” A Subbiah, Secretary to the State, Government of West Bengal claimed, “We are a strong contender if not the only one for the prize.” He added, “We have sensitized or offices and officials by providing them with proper training. The Number of cases has increased in the last three years and we need the Central Government’s help to carry on with the movement.” Surinder Singh, Director In-Charge, National Institute of Biologicals, Government of India mentioned, “The very objective of quality healthcare is to look after the patient’s safety. Communication is the most important factor.” P C Jha, Vice Chairperson, Consumer Online Foundation, New Delhi said, “A wide gap exists between what should be done and what have been done so far.” Bejon Kumar Misra, Founder, COF and the man in charge of this mission said “We are doing this project to bring out the truth to the forefront.” The winner of this prize will be announced on March 2016. Delegates from Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha along with other dignitaries both from this state and its neighbors also attended this meeting. Source: New Kerela [/fruitful_tab] [/fruitful_tabs]
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Project on Universal Healthcare coverage for the poor and elderly launched successfully in Varanasi
In order to make the Healthcare Delivery System accountable and accessible to the poor and the elderly citizens in India a Pilot Initiative in Varanasi was launched and a National Consultation with Experts from India & Overseas was organised from 09-11 August 2015 in collaboration with Government of India, Mata Anandamayee Hospital, Consumer Online Foundation and Partnership for Safe Medicines India Initiative www.safemedicinesindia.in The event was attended by 150+ delegates in Varanasi. Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing a centre of excellence on ‘Patient Safety and Accessibility to Quality Healthcare’ with the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to achieve the goal of universal health coverage (UHC) through efficient use of resources and technology. The MoU was signed by chairman of PSM India Initiative and also former Union chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and dean (Research and Development), IIT-BHU, Prof P K Jain during a three-day national consultation on ‘Improving Access to Quality Healthcare’ through “UHC: Varanasi Initiative” at a hotel in cantonment area on Monday. The goal of full health care coverage is based on profiling the health of at least 100,000 poor and senior citizens of Varanasi in the next one year. “All the activities conducted under the project will be documented and information emerging from the initiative will be used for conducting research and development on Patient Safety and Accessibility to Quality Healthcare by the faculty and students of IIT-BHU,” founder director of PSM, Bejon Misra told to TOI. The Centre will come up at department of pharmaceutics, IIT-BHU and a working group will be constituted for the same, he added. Prof Jain said that the varsity is ready to extend all its help and support for a noble cause as this is to implement UHC. The drugs controller general of India Dr G N Singh also expressed his desire to set up a drug testing lab at IIT-BHU on the occasion. “The healthcare indicators of our country are among the worst among developing countries, despite it being one of the world’s fastest growing economies during the past decades. The consumer organizations like us have been demanding for increase in number of resources in the healthcare sector since the last three decades for quality healthcare of people without shelling out money from their pockets,” Misra said. To achieve this, we came up with the idea of involving group of stakeholders through public-private partnership (PPP) wherein our focus would be complete healthcare coverage and improvement in preventive healthcare services by ensuring adequate availability of expert doctors in rural areas surrounding Varanasi, he added. Misra informed that Mata Anandmayee Hospital has been selected for consultative care services along with other facilities. Citing the areas of activities, Misra said, “The activities for the first year will focus on improving the processes and the systems to increase accessibility to safe and quality healthcare to at least 100,000 citizens of the holy city identified as below poverty line (BLP) citizens or as senior citizens. They will then be provided with a digitized health card to enable seamless accessibility to preventive and urgent healthcare.” Based on the outcomes and benefit perceived by the patients of Varanasi, the project will be scaled up in city to ensure sustainability on a public private partnership mode and replicated in other locations starting from July next. Meanwhile, several discussions on concept sharing and setting the agenda and objective of consultation, keynote addresses on ‘situational analysis’, ‘use of modern technology as enabler for patients to access transparent and accountable healthcare without compromising on safety and quality’, ‘implementation of healthcare reforms’ and ‘last mile delivery of essential healthcare services in rural areas and small towns’ as well as plenary sessions on the aforementioned subjects were held on the occasion. PSM India is a coalition of consumer organizations, patient, physician, pharmacist, university, industry and other professional organizations committed to the safety of prescription drugs and protecting consumers against unapproved, spurious, counterfeit, substandard, falsified, mishandled or otherwise unsafe medicines. Source : Times of India Click Here to View Event Images>>>
Patient Solidarity Day Celebrated
Jamshedpur 5th Dec 2015 India needs 10% of the GDP towards Public Healthcare, Citizens of Jamshedpur in India demanded this on the occasion of Patient Solidarity Day, celebrated globally by the members of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organisations (IAPO), Founder of Consumer Online Foundation, India and founder director,PSM India along with other Consumer and Human Rights Organisations organised the event on 5th December 2015 at the XLRI TATA Auditorium. The event saw various healthcare stakeholders discuss the issue of access to healthcare for all citizens. It was well attended by an audience from various spheres of society. This year the theme is “Healthcare is a human right”.
NATIONAL CONSUMER DAY
24th Dec 2015 Consumer Online Foundation and Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation (a PSM India Initiative) celebrate National Consumer Day on 24th December 2015 in Jaipur along with the Government of Rajasthan, Discussions shall take place on the theme of the day on how to improve accessibility to “Safe and Healthy food: combating food adulteration”. Accessibility to safe and healthy food is a consumer right and of prime importance to all consumers as it plays a key role is ensuring a healthy body. The growing menace of food adulteration especially in Dairy products is alarming and needs serious attention as Consumers are fast falling prey to this demon. 2,000 litres of synthetic milk was seized in Patiala. This milk was being used for manufacturing sweets, ghee, khoa, cream, and other dairy products. The products made and consumed from this synthetic milk is known to cause irreparable damage to our body organs especially our kidneys. It is also of course a slow poison for consumers suffering from hypertension and heart ailments. Loose milk is not only adulterated with water of dubious quality, it is also exposed to dust and light, both of which cause rapid deterioration. Milk is a good example to demonstrate that such food is required every day for children and adults, irrespective of being rich or poor. Several such food accessed every day by consumers are found to be adulterated by serious adulterants, which are not only unhealthy but dangerous and threat to life and body organs. The food colours that are often used contain lead and arsenic and can damage kidneys. Food adulteration certainly has become one of the biggest proliferating industry. What is however disturbing is the complete indifference being shown by the consumers as well as the regulatory bodies in checking the menace of adulterated food products, fruits and vegetables. Consumers must fight against all such food adulteration and encourage safe and healthy food made accessible to all at the most affordable price. We must demand a strong law to catch the culprits and punish them with strong deterrents like life imprisonment and or confiscation of all assets. What is urgently needed is a massive and widespread clamp down against the unscrupulous adulterators. This will take some time, but let us begin with what we can do. Join us at Rajasthan on 24th December and pledge towards a healthy nation; Zero Adulteration India !
Centre’s bid to protect Consumers’ Rights
GUWAHATI, Jan 20 The Central Government has decided to set up a special redressal mechanism initiative to address the grievances related to consumers’ rights with special focus to health services and food safety in Assam. In this regard, an exclusive helpline number and a website will be launched soon by the Union Government. This was informed by Bejon Misra, internationally acclaimed consumer rights activist and the founder-director of ‘Partnership for Safe Medicines India’ while talking to The Assam Tribune here today. The decision assumes importance in the wake of increasing number of sub-standard edibles and other products being marketed and sold to consumers across the State. Misra, who had a meeting with top Central Government officials in Guwahati on Tuesday, said that the Centre has assured to make the project operational within a year’s time and the State Government too has extended its support. Prominent citizens, including retired judges, bureaucrats and other professionals, will be involved in the initiative. The project will be jointly developed and monitored by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, DoNER and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. “Along with Assam, other Northeastern States will also be covered. Complaints will be received in all local dialects of the region,” Misra added. Misra, while maintaining that consumers’ awareness is very critical for a country’s development, said the “right to health” is one of the most neglected subjects. Favouring the need to promote generic medicine, Misra said that doctors should be compelled to prescribe a second option of generic medicine with identical compositions so that the common man is not denied of treatment at affordable prices. “It has become an uncanny trend to prescribe costly and branded medicines because of the profit involved. We must stop this trend by giving a choice of generic medicines to the patients. It is sad that 40 per cent of the Indian population are either taking loans or selling assets for medical treatment. Further, an increasing number of people are pushed below the poverty line due to the cost they incur for medical treatment, which is really unfortunate and a matter of worry,” Misra pointed out, adding, “The system is devoid of any provision of checks and balances”. He also appealed the political parties in the State to include universal health coverage for all, irrespective of their social and financial backgrounds, in their election manifestos. By SANJOY RAY