Two months in a row, UK’s premiere medical journal has analysed the country’s bleak future in healthcare
Peer-reviewed UK medical journal The Lancet — in an analysis of India’s annual budget — has questioned why healthcare for all citizens is not a priority for the state and the central governments. In an article titled ‘Accounting for the future of health in India’, the journal said that different government agencies in the country need to collaborate to deal with challenges in its healthcare system.
“In India, the challenge is that health has a low status as a popular demand. This has meant that the discussion on universal health coverage (UHC) has remained almost entirely confined to academic and policy circles,” the article said.
The study has given impetus to conversations already going on among country’s health activists and experts. “Globally, everyone is of the opinion that India’s public spending on healthcare should increase. What India needs is a unique, suitable model that can offer cost-effective solutions. Unfortunately, in recent years, budget cuts have halted the process of invigorating the public healthcare,” said Indranil Mukhopadhyay, Research Scientist and Assistance Professor, Public Health Foundation of India.
Co-authored by Aarathi Prasad, Monica Lakhanpaul, Surina Narula, Vikram Patel, Peter Piot, and Sridhar Venkatapuram, the article acknowledged the government’s commitment to palliative care, maternal care as well as the initiative to equip senior citizens with Aadhaar linked ‘smart cards’. But it added, “India will still continue to spend less on the health of its population per capita and percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) than most other countries in the world.” It also said that between 2005 and 2013, India had spent the entire fund allocated to health only once.
India’s per capita spending on healthcare remains one of the lowest in the world, and in some health indicators, India trails behind SAARC countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. India spends around one per cent of its annual budget on health as opposed to the world average of 5.99 per cent according to the World Bank data.
India has also been cautioned for its extensive reliance on an unregulated private sector. “There is now a pressing need to mobilise public opinion and engage diverse sectors to drive health to the top of the political agenda,” the publication said.
In its January edition, similar issues were raised. If health becomes a populist cause in India, the country might finally be able to achieve health outcomes commensurate with its economic and technical achievements, the editorial said.
It had also pointed out how “India vastly underperforms in terms of quality clinical research. Only 1-5 per cent of global clinical trials are done in India; and between 2005–14, fewer than half the medical colleges in the country published a single research article.”
BAD NEWS IN NUMBERS
India has 17 per cent of the world’s population, and has more deaths of children aged five and under — close to 12.5 lakh every year — the highest in the world. Also one third of all world’s cases for diseases such as tuberculosis, premature cardiovascular diseases and diabetes originate from India.
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