Health matters
7 years, 11 months ago

Health matters

The Hindu  

K. SUJATHA Rao’s Do We Care? Beginning with the origins of the country’s public health care delivery system, Sujatha Rao points to the extensive Health Survey and Development Report prepared in 1946 by Joseph Bhore of the Indian Civil Service over a three-year period. Tackling AIDS Sujatha Rao makes anecdotal references to her stint as the Director General of the National AIDS Control Organisation in order to explain the overbearing influence political will has had over India’s health architecture. If today the NACO affidavit stays unchanged and if it helped in the favourable outcome in the High Court in any way, a lot is owed to the outright support Ramadoss gave to the issues of MSM and transgenders.” Sujatha Rao is an ardent supporter of health care as a public good. Her prescriptions for the future for public health are pretty simple: decentralised revenue generation and decision-making, a thrust on cooperative federalism with the active involvement of civil society and stakeholders; revamping of the delivery system, or timely disbursement of funds and drugs; stable postings for government doctors with incentives for further specialisation, research and growth, and regulation of private practice; regulation of the private sector and minimising its role to tertiary care as much as possible; and enhanced government spending for whatever it takes to provide primary health care for free for all Indians.

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History of this topic

Warriors of hope: On India’s ASHA’s, inadequate compensation
3 weeks, 6 days ago

Warriors of hope: On India’s ASHA’s, inadequate compensation

The Hindu  

When an acronym was coined to refer to a newly-created cadre of health workers for the country, as political gestures are wont to, care was taken to ensure the word invoked a sense of promise. In 2005, the Centre launched the National Rural Health Mission, and nominated ASHAs to be the link between the community and the public health-care delivery …

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
1 month, 1 week ago

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
1 month, 1 week ago

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

Kerala opts for huge WB loan for initiative to improve health system
1 month, 4 weeks ago

Kerala opts for huge WB loan for initiative to improve health system

The Hindu  

The State Cabinet has approved the implementation of the Kerala Health System Improvement Programme under the Health department by taking a loan to the tune of ₹2,424.28 crore from the World Bank. The programme aims at building a resilient health system capable of tackling all emerging health issues while addressing the evolving demographic and epidemiological problems in the State. Goals …

National Rural Health Mission: Manmohan Singh’s quiet revolution in healthcare
2 months, 3 weeks ago

National Rural Health Mission: Manmohan Singh’s quiet revolution in healthcare

The Hindu  

Manmohan Singh’s legacy as an economist often overshadows his tenure as a Prime Minister. However, no other Prime Minister in India’s history has been responsible for saving as many lives as Manmohan Singh, thanks to his landmark decision to launch the National Rural Health Mission in 2005. By 2014, when Singh’s tenure ended, maternal mortality had dropped to 167 per …

Satya Calls for Efforts to Make AP Healthy State
3 months ago

Satya Calls for Efforts to Make AP Healthy State

Deccan Chronicle  

Vijayawada: Health minister Satya Kumar Yadav called on the medical fraternity to initiate all necessary measures to ensure the health and well-being of the people, with the goal of achieving a healthy, wealthy, and happy Andhra Pradesh. In an open letter addressed to doctors, supporting medical staff, and the management of both government and private hospitals on New Year’s Day, …

India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation
3 months, 1 week ago

India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 25, 2024 12:00 IST - 9 MINS READ As a nation and as a population, India shares with its South and South-East Asian neighbours the legacy of a heavy public health burden shaped by a common historical past. A recent NITI Aayog report reveals that the average monthly per capita health expenditure remains at about 13 per …

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden
4 months ago

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden

The Hindu  

The recent case where a Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus driver passed away after cardiac arrest while on duty, has set off discussions on rising poor health outcomes in our cities. The health burden in urban India Poor urban communities face a triple health burden: hazardous work environments, limited health-care access, and financial vulnerability during health crises, that are exacerbated …

'Nerve Shocking': Rajasthan HC Takes Suo Motu Cognizance Of Deteriorating Health Services In State, Says Hospitals Can't Play With Lives
4 months, 2 weeks ago

'Nerve Shocking': Rajasthan HC Takes Suo Motu Cognizance Of Deteriorating Health Services In State, Says Hospitals Can't Play With Lives

Live Law  

The Rajasthan High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the deteriorating condition of public health care system including gross negligence on part of hospitals in the State and has called upon the Union as well as State Ministry to submit a report on effective steps being taken for improving the present health care system. Furthermore, various Articles in the …

Transforming Rural India: A Decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission
6 months ago

Transforming Rural India: A Decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission

Hindustan Times  

A decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has yielded unprecedented gains in India, with the country achieving a significant milestone of 100% rural sanitation coverage. The mission, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, has transformed India's sanitation landscape, leading to a significant reduction in open defecation and improved public health. The SBM has also had a positive …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
6 months, 4 weeks ago

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India

Hindustan Times  

This paper traces the history of the evolution of India’s health care policy framework, focusing on its major objectives, challenges faced, and outcomes emerged. The key themes prevalent across most of these policies and specific initiatives included: increasing public health spending and reducing out-of-pocket or catastrophic health spending; addressing rural-urban inequalities in healthcare; developing primary health care; and achieving universal …

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks
10 months ago

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks

Hindustan Times  

A large volume of evidence sharply highlights the rural-urban divide in health outcomes in India, along with the differences in availability, accessibility, and affordability of health care services between rural and urban areas. Health The paper finds that India is far from reaching the goal of effective self-governance of local bodies in urban areas, and one casualty of this gap …

Have India’s health centres really ‘collapsed’?
1 year ago

Have India’s health centres really ‘collapsed’?

The Hindu  

Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera, Rishabh Malhotra, ‘The Changing State of Health Centres in North India’, Economic & Political Weekly There is a well-documented infamy around public health centres. Localised healthcare “is a much better way of dealing with most health problems than to let patients loose on larger public hospitals or the private sector”. “Health centres today have better facilities, …

A milestone in the journey to universal health care
1 year, 3 months ago

A milestone in the journey to universal health care

Hindustan Times  

In a landmark move for India’s health care system, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the 10,000th Jan Aushadhi Kendra under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana at AIIMS in Deoghar last week. While the media spotlight might not have brightly shone on this accomplishment, it’s a significant stride in India’s health care narrative. In his 2023 Independence Day address, PM Modi …

Compassionate leadership enables equitable health care access
1 year, 7 months ago

Compassionate leadership enables equitable health care access

Hindustan Times  

As we mark the anniversary of our nation's 77th Independence, it is truly a moment of pride for us. The implementation of the Cognitive Based Compassion Training has already left a significant imprint on 1,200 health care providers across 20 districts in Bihar, fostering the cultivation of compassionate leadership within the public healthcare framework. Elevating Primary Health Centres through enhanced …

Health Matters | Treating diseases — going back to go forward
1 year, 8 months ago

Health Matters | Treating diseases — going back to go forward

The Hindu  

It’s rare that we have, in these parts, a real medical whodunit, an unravelling of a medical mystery, nearly 200 years post facto too. In this context, they wonder if India’s research spending is adequate at all, and whether these funds effectively address the country’s health needs and prioritise the right disease areas. The IIPS works under the Union Ministry …

CSDS-Lokniti health survey | How satisfied are people with health services?
2 years, 1 month ago

CSDS-Lokniti health survey | How satisfied are people with health services?

The Hindu  

Satisfaction with public services can influence political outcomes; and low satisfaction can sometimes be a catalyst for change. Low levels of satisfaction can either spur political leaders to initiative public policy reform or they can lead to action by citizens, who either vote for political leaders who promise to make services better or seek private alternatives instead. Therefore, understanding citizen …

Investing in right education, sanitation helps improve health too: Doctors
2 years, 2 months ago

Investing in right education, sanitation helps improve health too: Doctors

Deccan Chronicle  

HYDERABAD: Year after year, Budget after Budget, successive governments in the country have spoken about healthcare and promised to invest in basic infrastructure but the country has to go a long way to be called a developed nation. Stressing on the importance of efficiently using the spending, Amor Hospital AD, Dr. Kishore B. Reddy said "Every year we hear Governments …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years, 3 months ago

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare

The Hindu  

India ranks poorly on multiple health financing indicators. Public health insurance schemes have often been reproached for imposing unreasonable package rates on empanelled private providers with a weak regard for actual costs of care. For instance, some countries like Canada have conceived regional health boards that organise care equitably within regions, exploit economies of scale, and bring down healthcare costs. …

Rural areas need human resources for health
2 years, 5 months ago

Rural areas need human resources for health

Hindustan Times  

The Covid-19 pandemic has uncovered the chronic problems in Indian health care including shortage of health care workers, health inequities, and marginalisation of evidence-based public health. This protracted lack of investment has impeded HRH scale up, recruitment, and training and resulted in budgetary constraints that limit their employment, particularly in rural areas. Only 18.8% of rural allopathic doctors held a …

Swachhata Diwas, Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi's dream of a clean India
2 years, 6 months ago

Swachhata Diwas, Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi's dream of a clean India

Firstpost  

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been one of the most ambitious public initiatives India has ever seen Launched as a campaign in 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is India’s largest cleanliness drive to date with three million government employees, school students, and college students from all parts of India participating in 4,041 statutory cities, towns and …

Charting the course for accessible health care in cities
2 years, 6 months ago

Charting the course for accessible health care in cities

Hindustan Times  

The pace of urbanisation in India has increased drastically in the past two decades, and the world’s fifth-largest economy is projected by the United Nations to have 675 million of its people, about 43%, living in cities by 2035, up from 35% in 2021. The 15th Finance Commission report highlights how the Covid-19 pandemic stretched government health facilities in India, …

India@75: How India’s Health Report Since Independence Has Been Creditworthy
2 years, 7 months ago

India@75: How India’s Health Report Since Independence Has Been Creditworthy

News 18  

We are now in the third decade of the 21st century, seventy-five years after India gained Independence. According to the latest National Family Health Survey the fertility rate has fallen to less than the replacement level of 2.1 to 2.0 children per woman. Primary Healthcare Centres and 3-tier system India started its first Primary Health Centre in 1952 after the …

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern
2 years, 8 months ago

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern

News 18  

Around 70 years ago, when India established its First Primary Health Centre, on the recommendation of the Bhore Committee, the idea was Indians will soon have access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to their needs. According to the Fifth Round of National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, half of the families in India …

The political pathway to health system improvements in India
3 years, 3 months ago

The political pathway to health system improvements in India

Hindustan Times  

The Indian health care sector has made significant progress in the last few decades. In this paper, the authors analyse the political determinants of improved health outcomes, making a case for political attention to healthcare, through increased investments, health care reforms and improved capacity to deliver curative and public health. The shortcomings of low public investment in health, a fragmented …

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway
3 years, 4 months ago

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway

The Hindu  

The central government’s flagship health insurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, aims to extend hospitalisation cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family per annum to a poor and vulnerable population of nearly 50 crore people. Apart from AB-PMJAY and State-level government health insurance schemes, small segments of the Indian population are covered under social health insurance …

Making India self-reliant in health care
3 years, 5 months ago

Making India self-reliant in health care

Hindustan Times  

The coronavirus pandemic presented to us a set of complex challenges, demanding a prompt response to the evolving situation in a manner that also facilitated rapid scaling up of the public health infrastructure, with an approach calibrated to the varying maturity of health systems across India. It also aims to provide health infrastructure, surveillance and research to make the country …

Strengthening nursing and midwifery for enhancing health care services in India
3 years, 5 months ago

Strengthening nursing and midwifery for enhancing health care services in India

Hindustan Times  

The density of health workers, in terms of numbers of doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 population, have always told us that India has far less nurses and midwives than needed. Measures such as the integration of ASHAs into the health workforce, and families providing subsitute bedside nursing care in hospitals, hide some of this acute shortage in the public …

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India
3 years, 7 months ago

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India

Hindustan Times  

Any discussion of the pathways that India needs to take towards Universal Healthcare would be incomplete without a clear understanding of how it is to be financed. However, perhaps the most important challenge that we face in our UHC journey is that while the proportions being allocated to healthcare by each state government from its annual budget vary greatly and …

Healthcare for all must be built on the voices of all
3 years, 7 months ago

Healthcare for all must be built on the voices of all

Hindustan Times  

The state of health care in India is far from optimal, a statement with which few of its 1.3 billion citizens would disagree. These underlying tensions are what motivated the formation of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. For India to achieve universal health coverage in the next decade, it is imperative to understand and negotiate the …

The rural healthcare challenge
3 years, 9 months ago

The rural healthcare challenge

Hindustan Times  

Covid-19 made inroads into rural and peri-urban areas during the second wave, with rural districts accounting for 53% of new cases and 52% of Covid-19 deaths in May, according to a recent report. In contrast to urban areas, preventive care services, including maternal and child health services, family planning, and immunisation, have dominated rural health allocations, and curative care has …

Reimagining India’s Health System: The Lancet Citizens’ Commission
4 years, 3 months ago

Reimagining India’s Health System: The Lancet Citizens’ Commission

The Quint  

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the gaps in the Indian healthcare system and necessitated the need to reevaluate the work that needs to be done to improve access to affordable, accessible and inclusive care for all. Vikram Patel, Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-founder of the Indian NGO Sangath, added, “The …

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era
4 years, 8 months ago

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era

Firstpost  

With the private health sector failing to provide equitable healthcare, we should consider regulations to ensure it acts in the people’s interests and not in the quest for profits. As we highlight the population issues on World Population Day, it is also important to put India’s healthcare system under the scanner and address the barriers to delivering quality healthcare services …

A blueprint to improve health systems in cities | Opinion
4 years, 9 months ago

A blueprint to improve health systems in cities | Opinion

Hindustan Times  

History is replete with examples of disease outbreaks altering cities and changing lives. Health workers conducting the coronavirus disease test inside Dharavi, Mumbai, June 8, 2020 It has underscored the weaknesses, inequities and dearth of investment in urban health infrastructure and serious issues of governance. While the National Rural Health Mission was able to address some critical challenges in rural …

Caste and public health
4 years, 10 months ago

Caste and public health

The Hindu  

INDIA is one of the world’s leading destinations for medical tourism, and yet it ranks abysmally low in terms of child and maternal nutrition in the world. But the limitation of this private health care system is that it has no space for the classical public health concerns, made apparent by COVID-19. The Brahminical elite and neoliberal state have created …

Manish Tewari: What we need is a New Deal for health
4 years, 11 months ago

Manish Tewari: What we need is a New Deal for health

Deccan Chronicle  

The most tragic image of the Covid-19 crisis so far has been of the millions of abandoned workers fleeing the cruel metropolises of our country, yearning for the safety of home and hearth. On paper India’s basic health infrastructure looks impressive with 1,52,326 sub-centres, 25,020 primary health centres and 5,363 community health centres providing health services to 72.2 per cent …

Opinion | The private sector has a role in the success of Ayushman Bharat
5 years, 6 months ago

Opinion | The private sector has a role in the success of Ayushman Bharat

Live Mint  

The late monsoon, drought, flooding and increased vector-borne diseases and other infections—this has been a tough year for India’s public health system, which already faces numerous challenges. The key aims of Ayushman Bharat are to reach 107.4 million Indians, establish 150,000 health and wellness centres by 2022, provide affordable medicines, and promote digital health innovations. Thanks to this collaboration of …

It takes a village
7 years, 2 months ago

It takes a village

Live Mint  

Under a blazing sun, in a poor tribal area in Madhya Pradesh, I try to get Kamla to speak. The goal of any public health system is universal healthcare, where every citizen is assured of quality health services, both preventive and curative. In this first column for Mint, I would like to share what I have learned about the public …

The Right To Health – Uneasy Silence
7 years, 7 months ago

The Right To Health – Uneasy Silence

Live Law  

Diseases and mishaps must have had their grip over humans ever since they came into existence. The Court through its judgment rendered by S.C.Agarwal J. ordered that for dealing with emergency cases the State must ensure that Adequate facilities are available at the Primary Health Centres where the patient can be given immediate primary treatment so as to stabilize his …

The Right To Health – Uneasy Silence
7 years, 7 months ago

The Right To Health – Uneasy Silence

Live Law  

Diseases and mishaps must have had their grip over humans ever since they came into existence. The Court through its judgment rendered by S.C.Agarwal J. ordered that for dealing with emergency cases the State must ensure that Adequate facilities are available at the Primary Health Centres where the patient can be given immediate primary treatment so as to stabilize his …

Continuing tale of state neglect
7 years, 7 months ago

Continuing tale of state neglect

The Hindu  

Health-care services in India at the time of Independence were a function of the socio-economic and political interests of the colonial rulers. Rise of private sector Instead of securing access to comprehensive health-care services, public health in the post-Independence period came to mean disease control programmes. The underfunding of the NHM should be seen in the light of a comment …

National Health Policy: Breathing life into health care
8 years ago

National Health Policy: Breathing life into health care

The Hindu  

The new National Health Policy released last week presents a clear vision of how India’s sluggish health system can be galvanised to deliver health and well-being to all by 2030, to meet the Sustainable Development Goal on health. While espousing a strong public health approach and commitment to strengthening the public sector, the policy aims to draw upon the diverse …

Will budget 2017 go beyond insurance to address India’s huge health challenge?
8 years, 2 months ago

Will budget 2017 go beyond insurance to address India’s huge health challenge?

Live Mint  

In an interview to Mint last month, Esther Duflo, one of the world’s leading development economists, said, “I feel a deep sense of crisis when I think about education and health, especially for the poor. These figures are supported by World Bank data which indicates that the share of Out of Pocket expenditure in private health expenditure in India remains …

In rural health care, few good options
8 years, 3 months ago

In rural health care, few good options

The Hindu  

Lack of access to public health care is not the only reason why quacks — informal private health-care providers without any formal medical education — continue to flourish in rural India. Most private providers, the bulk of whom lack formal medical qualifications, “exerted significantly higher effort than public providers” and “recommend correct treatments equally often.” These are the findings of …

Odisha SUM Hospital fire: India's comatose health system is in desperate need of a lifeline
8 years, 5 months ago

Odisha SUM Hospital fire: India's comatose health system is in desperate need of a lifeline

Firstpost  

Odisha’s Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital mishap appears like a shrill alarm. The country’s comatose health system is in desperate need of a lifeline. The NDA government has, in its draft National Health Policy 2015, proposed a “National Health Rights Act, which will ensure health as a fundamental right, whose denial will be justifiable”. The SUM Hospital fire …

Remedying India’s healthcare colossus
8 years, 7 months ago

Remedying India’s healthcare colossus

The Hindu  

Between January and June 2014, 243 people out of 1,000 sought medical treatment within the public healthcare system of India, whereas 756 people out of 1,000 opted to visit a private doctor or private hospital. It is well known that the entire public healthcare system, from tertiary care hospitals in large cities to Primary Health Centres in rural areas, is …

Health care needs Skill India too
8 years, 9 months ago

Health care needs Skill India too

The Hindu  

‘Bengal doctor beaten up’, ‘Hospital ransacked by angry relatives’, ‘AIIMS doctor assaulted by patient’s relative, FIR filed’… over the last many years such events continue to make frequent headlines. The overwhelming focus on quantity of health care in India has long ignored a massive problem with the quality of health care that is delivered both through public as well as …

Where people take care of municipal health center
9 years, 6 months ago

Where people take care of municipal health center

The Hindu  

When many people are scared to get treatment in Government hospitals, residents of Burma Colony in Srikakulam are able to get all the facilities in the municipal urban health service center with their collective efforts and formation of ward committees to improve the conditions in the hospital. “Our aim is to instill confidence among the people about Government hospitals which …

Delivering a better picture of health for India
10 years, 1 month ago

Delivering a better picture of health for India

Live Mint  

With universal healthcare, public health and sanitation flagged as core components of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s pre-election healthcare policy in 2014, the forthcoming budget should commit to building a healthcare system that meets the country’s needs. NCDs are expected to cost $6.2 trillion by 2030, and will irrevocably expose the poor state of healthcare delivery across primary, secondary and tertiary …

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