A prime concern for India

The state of healthcare in India is tumultuous to say the least.  On the on hand, India has some of the most state-of-the-art private hospital systems in the world; it’s a place in which medical tourists can receive the finest treatment for costs that are significantly lower than those of more developed nations.  Its private healthcare facilities make it one of best places in the world for medical tourism. 

 Conversely, India’s public healthcare system is impaired in many ways; not only does the quality of care need improving in many cases, but there is a large majority of Indians who are still not able to afford good medical treatment.  India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, wants to make quality and affordable treatment for his countrymen a priority.

The Indian government has created several initiatives, such as “Incredible India” and others, that promote the country’s private healthcare sector and the medical tourism industry.  It has also created several economic incentive programs for the development of private healthcare sector.  All of that has done much for the stimulation and actualization of medical tourism in the country.   

However, the public healthcare sector has faced the problem of lack of funds.  India’s prime minister has recently made statements to the press regarding the need to improve the country’s public healthcare sector is.  One of the points he emphasized was the need to seriously consider the pubic-private alliance in high-level healthcare facilities.

But the disparity between public health services and private health services is accentuated when looking at the disparity between hospitals in rural and urban areas.  Per capita expenditure on public health is lower—about seven times less, in fact—in rural areas of India, compared to government health spending for urban areas.  This makes the Indian public health system one of the most under-funded in all the world.

Still, as we reported earlier, the advent of medical tourism has prompted the Indian government to restructure and improve the medical organization of the country and establish more standardization in the quality and costs of medical services across hospitals, both private and public. 

The prime minister’s concerns are well-founded, as well is his urging to improve the public healthcare system.  Using the strength of the private hospitals to partner with the public system is a good place to start.