Hospitals and cardiologists should come up with indigenous procedures that would bring down cost of treatment for heart diseases and make it affordable for common man, Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav said.
Addressing a one-day national-level continuous medical education (CME) programme on cardiac diseases organised by Apollo Hospital here on Sunday, Mr. Yadav said that about 60 million people in the country were likely to face cardiac-related problems in the next five years. The medical fraternity must gear up to face the daunting challenge of treating all of them, he said.
While cardiac intervention procedures in India were very advanced when compared to many other Asian countries, ironically hospital facilities had not reached even five per cent of heart patients in the country. Moreover, awareness of heart-related ailments was only seven to 13 per cent in urban areas and three to seven per cent in rural areas. Wrong food habits, chemicals in vegetables, pollution and other factors led to heart diseases, Mr. Yadav said.
Rohini Sridhar, Chief Operating Officer, Apollo Hospitals, in her address, spoke.
