by The health care sector in India is mainly a public sector with the majority of the population dependent on government-run services. Despite having achieved some positive achievements like the remarkable decline in infant mortality rate, a sharp increase in life expectancy at birth and a reduction in the under-five mortality rate, it faces some serious challenges. While there are many problems in our healthcare infrastructure they are definitely solvable especially if entrepreneurs start contributing in this field because if you can lean things like debtors turnover ratio formula then solving these problems will be a walk in the park for you as an entrepreneur. Visit this page for more.
So let’s check out the major problems plaguing India’s healthcare systems:
- Insufficient doctors and medical staff
Every year about one million people die due to inadequate access to health care services. The majority of the deaths occur at the primary level itself due to a lack of skilled human resources. The existing system is plagued by huge shortages of qualified medical doctors and nurses which leads to poor quality services. This problem prevails at all levels of the health care delivery system starting from village clinics to district hospitals to tertiary level hospitals and right up to the central super-speciality hospitals. The doctors trained in government medical colleges are forced to go abroad for higher studies due to a lack of super speciality medical facilities within India There is a great shortage of doctors in rural areas, only one doctor is available for every 20,000 population and there are no good specialists at all in rural areas, which is a serious concern for both poor and rich people living in those areas.
- Inadequate number of hospitals and medical facilities
The second issue is that the present health care system in India is highly centralized and fragmented with no clear focus on public health programs. There is also an insufficient supply of trained human resources in medical and paramedical fields. A majority of people still do not have access to primary health services within one hour walk from their homes. The poor quality of services provided by the private sector does not help either. Also, there are regional disparities in the availability and utilization of health facilities across states and districts.
- Insufficient government policies
The government has also failed to create a conducive environment for private players to participate in the healthcare sector. There should be a change in policymaking so that the private sector can help bridge the gap between the demand and supply of healthcare services across India.
- Expensive
A major issue is also the cost factor which prevents people from accessing quality healthcare even when it is available. As per estimates, 65% population cannot afford costlier treatment procedures. Moreover if you add the GST on medicines the out of pocket expenditure increases even further. So there is a need for public-private partnerships to deal with this issue effectively. Many people live below the poverty line (BPL) and they can’t afford even an ordinary medical check-up. The facilities provided by the government are not so encouraging as compared to private hospitals which give more preference to poor people too. UPSC question
- Poor Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance is very important in today’s world, where it has become a necessity to compete with other markets. In terms of healthcare quality assurance plays an extremely important role. The quality assurance provided by the healthcare industry is not good enough, and it needs improvement.
