CHENNAI: The government must facilitate private enterprise in health care, Apollo group of hospitals chairman Prathap C. Reddy said here on Saturday.

He was speaking at the M. Santosham Oration organised by the Indian chapters of the American College of Chest Physicians and International Academy of Chest Physicians and Surgeons at Madras Medical College here.

Speaking on the huge demand for medicare professionals in the country, he said the solution did not lie in merely starting more medical colleges, but in allowing the private sector to take up health care.

While India had a healthy participation of the private sector, more organisations in the private sector should be allowed to set up health care systems. This would only be possible with the government's nod, Dr. Reddy said.

India had achieved the unique position of a knowledge centre over the last five years and it was essential to capitalise on this advantage to become a world leader in health care, Dr. Reddy added.

The country was threatened with lifestyle diseases; with predictions projecting that 50 per cent of the world's heart disease would be in India by 2010.

This figure was likely to go up to 60 per cent by 2015.

U.S. Consulate consul for public affairs Frederick Kaplan listed the various collaborations between India and the U.S. in health care.

The Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine, Tambaram, was receiving funds from the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief and the Centers for Disease Control.

During a recent trip to Tambaram, U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford had signed an agreement with the World Health Organisation to provide $ 4.17 million to fight tuberculosis, he said.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss sent his felicitations to the programme, which were read out in absentia. Marutham Santosham, director and professor, Health Systems Program, Department of International Health and Paediatrics, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, delivered a lecture on `Prevention of pneumonia mortality in children'.

Other members of the family of Mr. Santosham including Roy Santosham, Rajan Santosham and Ravi T. Santosham also spoke.

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