Lancet study points out India performing poorly in public healthcare among BRICS nations

There is so much more India need to do to ensure better public healthcare

By: Debjani Arora | | Published: December 12, 2015 11:21 am

Public healthcare in India has always been a concern. And a report in the medical journal Lancet just showed us that the country has to be lagging behind a lot regarding public healthcare. The report collated and published in Lancet by leading health researchers in the county pointed that India is one of the worst performing countries among BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and well behind its more impoverished neighbours such as Nepal and Bangladesh when it came to health. Here are 15 health problems every Indian should be aware off. Also Read - Proper nutrition policy can alleviate deaths associated with diet in India

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However, there had been a lot of progress in the past to help fight prevalence of a lot of infectious and preventable diseases. Low resource allocation, low emphasis on primary health care, poor utilisation of human resources, said Professor K Srinath Reddy, one of the co-authors of the study, as reported by DNA newspaper. The report says, India has 20 percent of the global disease burden, marginally better than 21 percent in 2005 while expenditure has dropped from 4.5 percent of the GDP in 2004-05 to 4 percent in 2015. Also Read - National Safe Motherhood Day: Why is pregnancy induced hypertension so dangerous?

There are certain positives; increase in life expectancy at birth, lowering of infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality ratio, containing the spread of HIV, being declared free of polio and maternal and neonatal tetanus by the WHO. However, India accounts for 27 percent of all the neonatal deaths and 21 percent of all the child deaths (younger than 5 years) in the world. Diarrhoea, pneumonia, preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, and neonatal sepsis account for 68 per cent of all deaths in children younger than 5 years in the country, reads the study. Read to know what ails India’s healthcare system.

The report suggests that taking radical measures is the only way to assure the universal health targets that the country’s own draft National Health Policy endorses, by 2022 can be met. The measures start with building infrastructure for primary health care. This policy, according to Reddy, provides a sound roadmap and strategic components for the way forward. However, it’s been in cold storage for almost a year as the NITI Ayog differed from it. Here is how overpopulation is affecting our health.

The high cost of healthcare is also a concern. Though the new government, as the report details, has launched several schemes to better healthcare across regions, ages, sexes caste and classes, it also slashed the annual health budget. However, India is hopeful that something concrete will come up soon.

Image source: Shutterstock

Published : December 12, 2015 11:21 am

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