Laggard Indian Healthcare System.

The new government is there with the dawn of many new aspirations from all the economical classes of the society. Every society has its own dreams associated with the new government and sans any doubt, this new government has been formed on the basis of dreams only, dreams of people that the new government will assist them in coming up and allocating them the much-awaited lifestyle, the citizens of the nation are demanding. The new government is there because people were fed up of hyperbole and wanted to address real change and that’s why this government needs to be an aberrational and exceptional from the other governments elected to the temple of democracy.

One of the most important things that the whole nation yearns for is a good healthcare system. As the new India is coming into the limelight, the young and rejuvenated nation awaits is better level of living and everyone knows that an upgraded lifestyle can be achieved only through a revamped healthcare system and with better amenities being accommodated to the Indian people.

The current system of healthcare in the whole nation is a ramshackle one with obsolete facilities marked by unworthy officials as well as with lesser efficiency than what is needed. The contemporary system of health management is marked by inefficacies of previous government in handling the most important asset that a nation carries – health of its citizens and owning to all such inaccuracies the current healthcare system of Indian remains most disorganised and haphazard.

The current system that guarantees to safeguard the lives of 1.237 billion can be termed as a stigma on the whole nation. On one hand it’s a boon for the rich and upper middle class while for the lower middle class and the impoverished section, dying on road is much better than getting treated in government hospitals (not all but a majority of them).

Healthcare was never a top priority after independence. The initial onus was on agriculture, infrastructure and military. This led to social sectors like health and education being neglected. In fact, it wasn’t until 1982-83 that the National Health Policy was endorsed by parliament.  Most of the services provided thereon were preventive (vaccinations against various ailments) and very few curative healthcare services were provided. Preventive services were mostly provided by the private sector. Medical education too was neglected, a case in point being that there are no superlative medical institution brands like the IITs or the IIMs. Although the government of India continues to boast of its so-called government hospital’s technology but it’s a true fact that public sector healthcare system continues to be the most preferred one.

Government hospitals continue to be a shame for the whole nation. In the government hospitals today, world worst facilities are being given and on the other hand many malpractices by crooked charlatan doctors like organ smuggling and also inefficiency at treating patients continue to terrorise the pauper patients. Today the doctors employed by the government have their own clinics as well as private institutes and these doctors in collusion with the other authorities continue to exploit the precious life of the patients. Many cases have come out where many patients have lost their life.

Many other cases have been disclosed in which the god of life – the doctors themselves become the harbingers of death who even go on to smuggle the organs of their patients. In the year 2008, Delhi Police busted an organ trade racket in which the merciless doctors had smuggled more than 500 kidneys. The doctors were paying the patients as much less than $1000 and then were selling the kidneys to the needy patients at a rate of $37,500.  India's illegal organ trade is driven in part by the incredible imbalance between supply and demand for legal organs. The Indian government banned the sale of kidneys for commercial gain in 1994; lawbreakers can be jailed for up to five years. But legal organ donations remain rare in India. The Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN), a Chennai-based non-government group that promotes legal organ donation, puts donation rates in India at well under 1 per million, compared to rates of more than 20 per million in places such as Spain, the U.S. and France and these ruthless doctors continue to exploit this demand and supply problem to make illegitimate money and to debilitate of thousands of people. One more thing is that some doctors even collude with despicable people and even sell children to such people. Boys who are born to poor people are immediately sold to people who want boys and thus some doctors and hospital staffs continue to devoid the children from his or her mother. These are the grass root level problems being faced by a common citizen of India.

The other thing is that we still after 67 years, lack advance technology in medical science for the poor citizens. Many advanced technologies used to cure people are not at all available at government hospitals meant for serving the poor people and that’s why at last poor people are turned away from the hospital.

Although it’s a true fact that India’s biggest and best hospital in AIIMS but it’s also a bitter truth that there is a dearth of beds for the people in various hospitals. In the year 2003 there was 0.9 beds per 1000 citizens of India? Totally ridiculous! And with the dearth of beds there is also a lack of doctors in the whole nation. If we go according to the statistics then in India only 1 doctor is available for treating 1700 patients. Does that make any sense?

Let’s move on to some general topics.

According to a survey by Thomson Reuters, India is the worst place for a mother to survive in the G20 countries. A mother dies every 10 minutes in India. The country is also not very much good for the child growth. Over 1.25 million children died every year in India due to deprivation from a good healthcare system. One more shocking fact is that only 7% children in India receive minimum acceptable diet set up by the World Health Organisation.

The other thing is indifference of government towards this sector. Hitherto the previous government have hardly done anything to help the sector recuperate and this is evident from the fact that India spends only 4.1% of its GDP on such an important sector while on the other hand Brazil spends 9% and USA 17.9% of its GDP on this paramount sector.

All these things continue to show that our healthcare system continues to be a failure. India is not able to produce big talents worldwide just because of this. Health is wealth and if the nation can’t give its citizens health then it should not dream about securing wealth. The new government carries a lot of onus on its shoulder and this is the most crucial one and the new government needs to work on it.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat

Jai Ma Bharti