Campaign to provide affordable health care for Indian women

(April 9, 2010) Tens of thousands of Indian women and their families will have access to quality maternal and child health-care services thanks to a partnership announced on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a chain of small hospitals in India for low-income clients. LifeSpring Hospitals has signed up to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a UNDP supported global initiative challenging companies to apply their business expertise, technology and innovative spirit to tackling poverty and accelerating progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight targets designed to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other problems, all by 2015. Thursday’s announcement makes LifeSpring Hospitals the first health-care chain to join the BCtA, and means an estimated 82,000 women and their families will have access to better care. Each LifeSpring Hospital accommodates 20 to 25 beds, and can provide lower-income mothers with healthcare and delivery services at 30 to 50 per cent of market rates, as well as pediatric care and immunizations. More than 100,000 pregnancy-related deaths occur each year in India, according to UNDP. Another 100,000 women annually suffer from infections due to pregnancy.