By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, December 7: The Prime Minister of Tibetan government in exile (Sikyong) Dr. Lobsang Sangay on Monday expressed his concern over the rising number of Hepatitis patients in the Tibetan exile community.
The Harvard graduate who swept the recent preliminary elections, was speaking on the first day of the workshop on Tibetan Medicare System (TMS) at the New Reception Center in Dharamshala from 7 to 9 December.
“In our society, the rate of Hepatitis patient is 11 percent of 10,000, which is extreme. In the western world, two to three percent is considered normal and four to five are considered alarming. But we are hovering above 9-10 percent. This shows our negligence and lack of awareness on its preventions,” Sikyong said.
Organized by health department of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), 44 executive secretaries of hospitals and dealing staff from 33 Tibetan settlements participated in the three-day training workshop. CTA also have invited four experts to guide them on how to spread awareness and to increase its enrollment.
“Many people are still confused over it. So the main objective through this workshop is to clear any doubts regarding TMS and to increase the enrollment,” said Minister of Health (Kalon) Dr. Tsering Wangchuk.
He also expressed similar concern on the rate of Hepatitis patients and assured that his department has initiated a big drive against Hepatitis. This year they visited around 33 schools for Hepatitis check ups and vaccinations on students from 6 to 18. We have many programs underway because Hepatitis B is one of the most threating disease in our society,” he said.
Stating the importance of TMS, Kalon Tsering Wangchuk highlighted those 70 percent of exile Tibetans without medical insurance face monetary problems when they have to render secondary medical care in private hospitals.
The department is still working on plans to implement TMS in Nepal. However, TMS in its 4th year since implementation has over 19,650 holders this year compared to last year’s 9,000.
Sikyong declared that they received a $3.2 million aid from USAID for TMS but he said that such aid would not be perennial and therefore we need work towards establishing ourselves as self-sustained.
To further improve the number, the health Kalon announced that the department would award, ‘TMS Outreach Award’, to the Tibetan settlement that will have the highest percentage of TMS holder for the year 2016-17. The settlements will be divided in section according to the region and size.
Under the Tibetan Medicare System, Tibetans in India can avail medical insurance by paying a yearly premium to the health department. Several people have availed refunds for their medical expenses.
However, people complain that the time taken for the processing of the refunds is unnecessarily lengthy. “Not all people have money to spend on medical bills and they might be borrowing from others. After submitting the bills already verified by the accounts section of the respective settlement hospital, why should a refund of amount less than one lakh take so long. I urge the Kalon to fasten the refund processing,” said a Tibetan registered under the TMS on condition of anonymity.
