Good health is directly related to the right to life. And when the state fails to provide healthcare to its people, it is a double-whammy for the poor and the common man. Money must be spent judiciously and responsibility must be taken to provide affordable healthcare to the people
Shocking stories of infants dying in hospitals in our country even after 70 years of independence should ideally have shaken the ‘collective conscience’ of the society. These deaths are reflective of the pathetic state of affairs of the healthcare system in the country. Tragedy is that we have been quite tolerant and have accepted it to be the fait accompli. This, despite the fact that enormous money is spent on healthcare by the Governments, both at the Central and State level.
According to a report presented in Parliament by the Government, as many as six crore people in India slip down below the poverty line after spending and exhausting their resources on treatment. An overwhelming majority of people across the country cannot afford proper medical treatment. It may not be an exaggeration to say that proper healthcare and treatment is a luxury in India today.
Barring few reputed institutions, like the All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) or the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh, the state healthcare system has virtually collapsed. Even primary healthcare is beyond the reach of a common man. Not that there are no hospitals or primary health centres available at accessible distances. This only because these are not run and managed properly. Most of these health centres remain without doctors who are either not posted there or prefer private practice.
With the emergence of infamous corporate hospitals across the country, a wrong perception about the availability of better healthcare has been built up. It can be anybody’s guess as to how many people can afford treatment in such hospitals. In fact, it is the crass commercialisation resorted to by such hospitals that have led to the decline in healthcare across the country. The culture of cuts and commissions has percolated right to the bottom that even basic healthcare comes at an exorbitant price.
The problem lies at the decision-making level. It is basically the vested interests and the conflict of interest of those who matter, that has not allowed any reform in the healthcare system.
Besides, those who could initiate the reforms do not feel the pinch of the problem. This country is run by bureaucrats and politicians.
Once someone becomes a legislator, whether in Parliament or the State legislature, or holds any Government office, whether as a peon or a Cabinet Secretary, he/she and also the dependents, get entitled to medical treatment at the Government cost throughout their life. The entire amount gets reimbursed. Thus, they do not feel any pain or pinch of the highly exorbitant costs on healthcare. It is the common man who bears the brunt. And nobody bothers about the common man.
It is a double whammy for the poor and the common man. While on the one hand, hospital charges are unaffordable, expenses on drugs are equally cruel.
In absence of a proper drug pricing policy, the prices of drugs are inhumanly exorbitant. For example, a medicine that one should be able to get for Rs 10, is available in the market for no less than Rs 100.
Disease is a compulsion. Nobody falls ill of his own volition. Even when the person knows that he is being cheated, he has no option but to pay through the nose. As mentioned earlier, not everybody is lucky enough to be able to pay. Good health is directly related to right to life. When the state fails to provide good healthcare to its people, it indirectly violates one of the fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution. And it is not something very difficult to provide.
There is a huge physical infrastructure available across the country from primary to tertiary levels.
Every year, tens of thousands of crores are allocated and spent on healthcare by the Government.
But it does not reach to the people. If the money is properly and judiciously spent, and responsibility is taken properly, it will not be difficult to provide affordable healthcare to the people.
How is it that a Government-run civil hospital, in a district headquarter, with massive infrastructure and adequate funds, stands in no comparison to a privately run hospital with far less infrastructureIJ We need to learn the lessons.
(The writer is a former president of Punjab Medical Council and member core committee Alliance of Doctors on Ethical Healthcare)