Charitable Trust Hospitals get various benefits from the government such as land, electricity at subsidised rates, concessions on import duty and income tax, in return for which they are expected to provide free treatment to a certain number of indigent patients. In 2005, a scheme was instituted by the high court formalising that 20 per cent beds set aside for free and concessional treatment at these hospitals. In Mumbai, these hospitals have a combined capacity of more than 1600 beds. However, it has been brought to light both by the government and the media that these hospitals routinely flout their legal obligations. Considering that charitable hospitals are key resources for provisioning of health services to an already strained public health system it is vital to ensure their accountability.This study by CEHAT intended to look at the literature on the history of state aided charitable hospitals in Mumbai, and appraise the nature of engagement between the private sector and the state aided hospitals. It critically reviewed the data submitted by the state aided charitable hospitals of Mumbai to the Charity Commissioner on free and subsidised patients, to estimate the degree of compliance to by the hospitals and also to monitor them. The study found that a substantial number of state aided charitable hospitals do not comply with the scheme, and the degree of non compliance is quite high. Most state aided charitable hospitals never allotted the mandatory 20% beds for treating the poor and instead complained that they were treating too many patients. Data reported to the Charity Commission by the state aided charitable hospitals is inadequate, inconsistent and unsystematic. Charitable hospitals predominantly treat indigent or weaker section patients at the outpatient level because outpatient (OP) admissions can be passed off as in patient (IP) admissions in the current scheme of things and frees an extra bed that can earn thousands of rupees per day. State aided charitable hospitals invariably underreported donations and bed numbers at the office of the Charity Commissioner. No matter how serious the allegations were, no kind of penalties were levied on the offending hospitals. There was not a single instance where disciplinary action was taken against an offending hospital in Mumbai. We hope that the findings of the study would be useful in making key recommendations for effective implementation of the high court scheme, especially for guaranteeing access to the poor to the 20% beds that are set aside.

With her concept of “Even fifty cents can save a life,” Dharma Master Cheng Yen began to challenge people’s conceptions of the impossible. A group of ordinary housewives were the first to believe in and follow her. The major organization that Tzu Chi is today began with this group of housewives. While lodging at Puming Temple, despite having nothing to her name, she was driven by one simple but resolute belief: “If I eat until I am eighty percent full, I can save the remaining twenty percent to help those in need.” With this hardworking and frugal mindset, Master Cheng Yen and her disciples overcame countless hardships to expand their charity work. She explained, “I have faith in my own selflessness and faith in the love of others. I established the Tzu Chi Merit Association not for my own sake, but ‘for Buddha’s teachings and for sentient beings.’ I believe that everyone has an abundance of love in their hearts. As long as there is someone to guide them, they can exercise their power of kindness.” Volume 2 (1966-1977): The beginnings of Tzu Chi’s charity mission.

Dr Henri de Rothschild was a fifth generation Rothschild and perhaps the most famous of the Paris Rothschilds of the fin-de-siècle period. A 'sleeping partner' of the bank and the non-drinking owner of Mouton-Rothschild, Henri spent much of his life building medical institutions and promoting scientific medicine, including the promotion of Ehrlich's Salvarsan to cure syphilis and the use of radium to cure cancer. His hospital in a working class area of northern Paris boasted the latest in medical advances. Henri was particularly influential in developing the new science of infant feeding, while his broader concerns with infant health led to his playing a prominent role in the development of the specialty of pediatrics. This biography of Henri de Rothschild focuses on his medical achievements and that of his close family in France. Henri, his wife Mathilde and his mother Thérèse all had busy medical careers during World War I. The book also gives an account of both women's experiences of the war. Along with his explicitly scientific medical concerns, Henri was also a prolific playwright and, under the pseudonym André Pascal, wrote several plays about doctors. This book situates the plays, and particularly the themes of charlatanism, women doctors and medical ethics, in their contemporary context of the social and medical life of Paris. A fascinating and vividly written study of a somewhat neglected figure in the history of the illustrious Rothschild family, this book will make a valuable addition to the libraries of scholars in the history of medicine and those studying child health and welfare, the portrayal of doctors in literature, and more broadly the social and cultural life of early-twentieth century Paris.

Traces the development of medical practice from the Industrial Revolution to the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of source material, it charts the changing relationship between patient and practitioner.

In the nineteenth century, drug consumption permeated French society to produce a new norm: the chemical enhancement of modern life. French citizens empowered themselves by seeking pharmaceutical relief for their suffering and engaging in self-medication. Doctors and pharmacists, meanwhile, fashioned themselves as gatekeepers to these potent drugs, claiming that their expertise could shield the public from accidental harm. Despite these efforts, the unanticipated phenomenon of addiction laid bare both the embodied nature of the modern self and the inherent instability of the notions of individual free will and responsibility. Drugging France explores the history of mind-altering drugs in medical practice between 1840 and 1920, highlighting the intricate medical histories of opium, morphine, ether, chloroform, cocaine, and hashish. While most drug histories focus on how drugs became regulated and criminalized as dangerous addictive substances, Sara Black instead traces the spread of these drugs through French society, demonstrating how new therapeutic norms and practices of drug consumption transformed the lives of French citizens as they came to expect and even demand pharmaceutical solutions to their pain. Through self-experimentation, doctors developed new knowledge about these drugs, transforming exotic botanical substances and unpredictable chemicals into reliable pharmaceutical commodities that would act on the mind and body to modify pain, sensation, and consciousness. From the pharmacy counter to the boudoir, from the courtroom to the operating theatre, from the battlefield to the birthing chamber, Drugging France explores how everyday encounters with drugs reconfigured how people experienced their own minds and bodies.

An introduction to the development of medical and hospital services in Britain before 1939.

In this long-awaited updated edition of his groundbreaking work Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, renowned healthcare economist John Goodman ("father" of Health Savings Accounts) analyzes America's ongoing healthcare fiasco—including, for this edition, the failed promises of Obamacare. Goodman then provides what many critics of our healthcare system neglect: solutions. And not a moment too soon. Americans are entangled in a system with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. It's not just patients that need liberation from this labyrinth of confusion—it's doctors, businessmen, and institutions as well. Read this new work and discover: why no one sees a real price for anything: no patient, no doctor, no employer, no employee; how Obamacare's perverse incentives cause insurance companies to seek to attract the healthy and avoid the sick; why having a preexisting condition is actually WORSE under Obamacare than it was before—despite rosy political promises to the contrary; why emergency-room traffic and long waits for care have actually increased under Obamacare; how Medicaid expansion spends new money insuring healthy, single adults, while doing nothing for the developmentally disabled who languish on waiting lists and children who aren't getting the pediatric care they need; how the market for medical care COULD be as efficient and consumer-friendly as the market for cell phone repair... and what it would take to make that happen; how to create centers of medical excellence, which compete to meet the needs of the chronically ill; and much, much more... Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and decidedly humane in its concern for the health of all Americans, John Goodman has written the healthcare book to read to understand today's healthcare crisis. His proposed solutions are bold, crucial, and most importantly, caring. Healthcare is complex. But this book isn't. It's clear, it's satisfying, and it's refreshingly human. If you read even one book about healthcare policy in America, this is the one to read.

Grass Roots Medicine describes the emergence of free health clinics in the late 1960s and early 1970s and examines the important transformations that have occurred since the mid-1980s. The book is based on more than 100 interviews with key individuals in the free health clinic movement and shares their comments with readers.