DNA Edit | Healthcare, or extortion? Private hospitals make a killing due to govt apathy

The National Health Policy 2017, unveiled in March this year, promised to increase public health spending to 2.5 per cent of the GDP in a time-bound manner. It also guaranteed healthcare services to all Indians, particularly the underprivileged. Eight months on, the assurance sounds hollow. With public hospitals inspiring little confidence, citizens are bound to flock to private institutions in the elusive quest for proper treatment. Helpless and ill-informed about the quality of care they are entitled to, these people are cash cows for big branded hospitals.

This long-standing reality sums up the predicament of the parents of a deceased girl who was admitted to a private hospital for dengue treatment. A sum of Rs 16 lakh was charged by Gurugram-based Fortis Hospital where the seven-year-old child received treatment. The parents, in addition to losing their daughter, also had to cough up the money. They were billed Rs 200 per strip of sugar strips when the MRP is Rs 13 per piece; instead of cheaper versions of drugs, they had to pay for the most expensive brands. A closer look at the bill will give a detailed know-how of the ways people are fleeced in the name of quality healthcare; people who are hopelessly helpless in times of medical emergency. Globally, India ranks a lowly 154th among 195 countries on the healthcare index, lagging behind China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

While Moody’s upgrade of the Indian economy is fine, India shows no signs of recovering from its crumbling public healthcare infrastructure. At stake are millions of lives who can’t afford a Fortis-style treatment, and if they do, it would reduce them to penury. What’s become evident long ago is the way private healthcare has profited at the cost of the common man. It’s a pan-India phenomenon because government hospitals across India present the same picture of decrepitude, where basic amenities are in short supply, hygiene is an alien concept, and doctors and nurses are either overworked or couldn’t care less. It shows an acute lack of accountability to the people who pay taxes in the hope that the government will, in return, take care of them.

If the government fails to honour its commitment to revamp public healthcare, it should at least follow an agenda to make private hospitals accountable for their actions. The state and Central governments can make a healthy start by issuing strict guidelines to private hospitals that any complaint of over-charging and lack in quality of treatment would be dealt with severely. It should also routinely subject such institutions to government scrutiny. At present, very few hospitals adhere to the norm of allocating beds to the poor, which goes on to show how little they care about their commitment to society. It was a stroke of luck for the parents that a viral Facebook post got the attention of Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda, who had promised to look into the matter. Every day scores of such instances, where greed consumes human lives, go unreported.