INDIA: Cardiac Care Tests, Consultations for Elderly at Rs.999

KOLKATA (Indian Express), September 22, 2006: Apollo Hospitals, the corporate hospital chain, is taking on heart disease in Kolkata with an innovative lifetime Rs 999 offer to senior citizens that will entitle them to a set of three tests free and discounts on consultative charges and higher tests. By becoming a member of the lifetime club at Apollo Gleneagles, its venture with Singapores Parkway group here, the senior citizen would be entitled to free tests for lipid profile, blood sugar and an echocardiogram (ECG). The member would get a 50 per cent discount on consultation charges and 10 per cent on other tests for cardiac diseases. VR Ramanan, director of the Apollo Hospitals, said the incidence of heart diseases per 100,000 population has increased from 145 males and 126 females in 1985 to 253 males and 204 females in 2000. Prevalence of coronary heart disease rate in urban population is more than three times than rural population. Each year, about 100,000 children are born with congenital heart disease. Around 25,000 coronary by-pass operations and 12,000 angioplasties are carried out every year. However, although 2 million patients in India require corrective surgery, only 25-30 per cent have access to facilities. A focus on preventive medicine would help curb the number of heart patients, Ramanan said. Satyajit Bose, citing various studies, said India has around 30 million people with heart disease and one in six is below 40 years of age. As people below 40 years of age form the bulk of the workforce, this is a calamity signal for the Indian economy. Diabetes, one of the major triggers for heart ailments, is spreading rapidly in India and it is estimated that by 2010 one out of every four diabetics worldwide would be an Indian. Apollo’s national heart plan, to continue till the year end, will focus on setting up camps in all its 44 hospitals and 63 telemedicine centres to spread awareness through seminars and one-on-one counselling about premature heart disease and the preventive measures that can be initiated to prevent cardiac problems. © 2005: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.