Why Healthcare is Important to You and Society

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Healthcare is a very important aspect of human development. The definition of healthcare goes as the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and management of disease, illness, injury, and the preservation of physical and mental well-being in humans.

Healthcare is a very important indicator of Human Development Index (HDI) as human health directly corresponds to the increase/decrease in the human death rates and lifestyle quality. According to a UNESCO study, Denmark is the country with highest HDI in the world, which is also having best Public Healthcare program in the whole world. It spends a staggering 11% of its GDP on the Healthcare Department.

Condition of Public Healthcare services in India

In India, the condition of the public health care department is quite poor in comparison to the general international trends and actually, we can say that there is no importance of average human life. India's health parameters are amongst the worst in the world and a child born in India has less chances of survival, in comparison than Nepal or Bangladesh. We are even lagging behind many Sub-Saharan countries in an array of Healthcare parameters.

Inequality

There is a huge rural and urban divide if we talk about the public integration of healthcare management services in the Indian circumstances. Also, there is a huge inequality in the distribution of public healthcare services, in one state to another. For example, the life expectancy in Kerela is 76 years, whereas in Madhya Pradesh it is a meager 56 years.

Rich Vs Poor

In big cities, although high standard of healthcare services and high profile private hospitals are easily available, but that is limited to the ultra-rich and higher middle class. Poor people are generally left out to struggle on their own in filthy and crowded government hospitals. These government hospitals often misses out on the basic infrastructural requirements, like beds, wards and cottages.  State-of-the-art medical equipments are absent resulting in poor diagnosis, treatment and worst quality of medical services. Except this, malnutrition is a very big problem also.

So, Is it like we Have Achieved Nothing

No, that is not the case. For instance, our life expectancy has increased from 35 years, at the time of independence, to 65 years today. This is a very big achievement given our huge population and limited availability of resources. The infant mortality rate has been reduced from 150 per 1000 to 50 per 1000 since independence. Also, the rate of decline in child under-nutrition has grown exponentially between 2006 and 2014.India has officially been declared Polio Free in 2014. But all said,this is not well enough, for the millions of still ailing and suffering in India.

What We need to Do?

We need to develop a comprehensive network of hospitals and medical services covering the remotest rural areas.

We need to concentrate specifically on the public hospitals sector. A national system of Hospital accreditation must be put in use.

All the diagnostic centers giving any kind of commission to doctors/physicians should be traced and refrained from further extending their license.

Manufacturing and application of a digital medical information system. This will, in time, encourage healthcare data collection, transparency, quality management, patient safety, efficiency, efficacy and appropriateness of the care.

Conclusion :  We should start following all of the above suggestions in a religious manner. We have come a long way, but still the desired destination is quiet far. We just need to put our head down and work intensively and, most important, honestly, with complete force and mind of ours.