Today the country’s largest commercial bank, State Bank of India (SBI), took a noble step by launching a loan product for the poor heart patients. The name of the loan product is ‘SBI Hrudaya Suraksha Scheme’ and is meant for only those patients who are undergoing the treatment of cardiac at Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore.

Muhammad Yunus, founder, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and Nobel Laureate for peace in 2006, launched the loan product.

SBI Chairman O P Bhatt reported on the occasion, “SBI has been taking several initiatives to reach out to the larger sections of the society and the new loan scheme is aimed at helping the poor to undergo heart surgeries was one such initiative. The bank will come out with many more complex products in association with Narayana Hrudayalaya in the future.”

SBI plans to extent around 80% of medical expenditure or Rs 50,000 (whichever is lower) under the loan product. The borrower will be required to repay the loan in six months and will be exempted from interest for the first three months.

After the first three months, the loan will have to be repaid at an interest rate of 8.5%. The loan however would only be available to poor patients, whose names would be recommended by the hospital. Initially, 30-50 patients would be helped with the loan as expected by the bank.

Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman and managing director, Narayana Hrudayalaya informed, “We need to bring in innovative schemes and investments to shore up healthcare cover in the country. Healthcare, especially heartcare, needs huge investments. The present demand is 25 lakh heart procedures a year, but only 80,000 procedures are carried out across various hospitals.”

Mahpara Ali, chief general manager, SBI, Bangalore, further informed, “Talks are on with Narayana Hrudayalaya as to how to link self help groups (SHGs) in Karnataka for healthcare schemes. Integration of SHGs and healthcare schemes are being worked out. State Bank of India along with few non-government organisations (NGOs) in Karnataka has exposure to 50,000 SHGs and has disbursed loans to the tune of Rs 200 crore.”