The rural healthcare challenge
3 years, 6 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 been inadequate. Combating rural Covid-19 will not only entail a revamp of rural curative care infrastructure and manpower, but will also require a reorientation of health personnel competencies and public expectations from the rural health system. With most rural health facilities involved single-mindedly in Covid-19 mitigation, the impact on routine essential care could get worse and can be disastrous unless adequate provisions are made. While the rural challenge looks insurmountable, successful implementation could provide scaffolding for an exemplary rural health system that India has dreamt of ever since independence.

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History of this topic

The challenge of universal health coverage
6 days, 6 hours ago

The challenge of universal health coverage

The Hindu  

The ongoing national conversation on what India needs to do for universal health coverage often misses the complexity of multiple health systems and the unique challenges they bring. Not the solution Government health expenditure in West Bengal, which was ₹1,346 per capita in 2019-20, is only about 61% of the estimated ₹2,205 required to offer UHC. The story is no …

Can mid-level healthcare providers compensate for physician shortages in rural India?
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Can mid-level healthcare providers compensate for physician shortages in rural India?

The Hindu  

A recent paper published in the National Medical Journal of India has emphasised the need to introduce a cadre of mid-level healthcare providers into the health systems to compensate for physician shortages. Coupled with professional practice models that ensure long-term growth and career advancement, MLHPs can bolster India’s journey to achieve and sustain universal health coverage,” Dr. Bhaduri says in …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
3 months, 2 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 …

Health care: Innovations for an inclusive future
3 months, 3 weeks ago

Health care: Innovations for an inclusive future

Hindustan Times  

India's health care sector is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven not just by rising incomes, but also through a confluence of transformative factors. By fostering supportive government policies, India has the potential not only to improve health care for its citizens but also to set a global benchmark for affordable, high-quality care. Four areas need urgent attention: * Policy and regulatory …

The burden of health care on India’s poorest
4 months, 1 week ago

The burden of health care on India’s poorest

Hindustan Times  

In recent years, the Indian government has made significant strides in reducing the burden of health expenditure on the common citizen. A particular focus of the government has been to reduce the burden of severe economic shocks due to “catastrophic” health care expenditure such as hospitalisation. In order to understand the character of catastrophic health expenditure, Artha Global’s Centre for …

Letters to The Editor — June 11, 2024
6 months, 1 week ago

Letters to The Editor — June 11, 2024

The Hindu  

Alternative medicine The recent article by Dr. K. Madan Gopal, “The delicate balancing of health-care costs”, on the need for balancing health-care costs, puts forth much needed insights into the matter. India enjoys medical pluralism and the role of alternative health care too needs to be deliberated upon in this context, especially in the preventive aspect. Intervention through alternative medical …

Equitable Health Solutions Can Help Rural India Combat Climate Change Related Challenges
6 months, 2 weeks ago

Equitable Health Solutions Can Help Rural India Combat Climate Change Related Challenges

News 18  

India is experiencing the aftereffects of climate change in an unprecedented manner. In fact, Food and Agricultural Organisation’s recent report underlines that poor households lose around five per cent of their total income annually due to heat stress compared to better-off households. Similar studies also suggest that along with health threats, extreme weather conditions unleash a multi-pronged impact on the …

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks
6 months, 3 weeks 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 …

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre
7 months ago

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre

The Hindu  

Public spending on health in India has historically remained low. Note: Union government spending includes spending by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Min of AYUSH Furthermore, a significant part of the increase in health investment as a percentage of GDP during the pandemic needs to be attributed to the negative and low growth of GDP, while absolute increase …

Public-private partnership: Pathway to health for all
7 months ago

Public-private partnership: Pathway to health for all

Hindustan Times  

The goal of universal health coverage is one of the most significant commitments to equitable quality health care for all. Health care A true partnership, where the professionalism, patience and perseverance of private sector can positively impact the health of the Indian population across a new private-public partnership nomenclature--the poor, paediatric and pregnant women alike. · Technology and innovation towards …

As cancer cases rise, how can India improve access to care?
7 months, 1 week ago

As cancer cases rise, how can India improve access to care?

India Today  

India has one of the highest cancer burdens in the world. With one in every nine Indians expected to undergo cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, Malti Sachdev, senior managing director of cancer care technology brand Varian, explains why public-private partnerships are essential for accessible treatment. Roughly 70 per cent of the population resides in rural areas and faces a significant …

Have India’s health centres really ‘collapsed’?
9 months, 2 weeks 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, …

Is your vote for health?
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Is your vote for health?

The Hindu  

There are no two ways about this thing, election fever is in the air and with advancing summer, the earth has begun to sizzle not just with the heat, but also early election preparedness. The NDA ensured continuity of policy by scrapping the Medical Council of India and establishing the National Medical Commission, further strengthened the rural health infrastructure with …

Electoral season and restructuring the health system
10 months ago

Electoral season and restructuring the health system

The Hindu  

With the electoral season on, it is going to be raining manifestos. Both mentioned revamping the primary health system, ensuring universal health care, expanding human resources, increasing use of technology and so on. The NDA ensured continuity of policy by scrapping the Medical Council of India and establishing the National Medical Commission, further strengthened the rural health infrastructure with capital …

Populism does not help public health
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Populism does not help public health

The Hindu  

In the heart of India’s bustling cities and tranquil villages, there is a silent but significant fight raging on the public health front. The absence of specialised courses such as public health engineering in India’s educational institutions points to a gap in the multidisciplinary approach required in public health management. The current physician-centric focus of India’s public health system often …

Government of Karnataka and C-CAMP co-host roundtable to develop roadmap for innovative healthcare solutions
1 year, 1 month ago

Government of Karnataka and C-CAMP co-host roundtable to develop roadmap for innovative healthcare solutions

The Hindu  

Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms held a Health Roundtable with various CSR and Philanthropic organizations to explore partnerships and funding opportunities for strengthening public health systems. According to a release by C-CAMP, the roundtable follows the formation of a strategic alliance between the Department of Health and Family Welfare …

Compassionate leadership enables equitable health care access
1 year, 4 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 …

Ready, or not: The Hindu Editorial on rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and India’s state of preparedness
1 year, 8 months ago

Ready, or not: The Hindu Editorial on rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and India’s state of preparedness

The Hindu  

The better part of management is preparedness. On April 12, a total of 7,830 new cases were reported in a 24-hour period, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data, possibly the highest in over 200 days. However, health systems can scarcely afford to be under prepared, especially considering the recent traumatic experience of a raging pandemic taking a huge toll. …

The big tests of India’s healthcare ambitions, in 5 charts
1 year, 8 months ago

The big tests of India’s healthcare ambitions, in 5 charts

Live Mint  

Friday, 7 April, will mark World Health Day. Despite public health milestones such as the eradication of polio and neonatal tetanus, India still has miles to go in achieving universal healthcare. A health ministry report for 2021-22 showed that community health centres—the third and top tier of public healthcare service in rural India—have an 82% shortfall in paediatricians and 80% …

Chandrakant Lahariya | In 2023, let’s try to make India a healthier nation
1 year, 11 months ago

Chandrakant Lahariya | In 2023, let’s try to make India a healthier nation

Deccan Chronicle  

The year 2022 is behind us and so is hopefully Covid-19, which arguably has become endemic in India. Clearly, the start of the year 2023 is the time we in India must move on from Covid-19 and use the learnings for further strengthening our health services. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, much of health system attention was diverted to the …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years 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. …

Achieving sustainable development goal targets for health workforce
2 years, 2 months ago

Achieving sustainable development goal targets for health workforce

Hindustan Times  

Healthcare for all is probably India’s most ambitious and necessary dream. As of 2020-21, the most recent year for data reporting, numbers from NITI Aayog tell us that India lags the target by about 8 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 people translating to a shortage of over 50 lakhs of these health workers. Chart: Siddhesh Zadey, ASAR Source: Census …

India must fine-tune its strategy to eliminate Tuberculosis
2 years, 2 months ago

India must fine-tune its strategy to eliminate Tuberculosis

The Hindu  

Termed as the severest crisis in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic dislodged the entire health system in India, sidelining other public health issues, and tuberculosis was no exception. Despite an extensive national programme and a vast private sector, India is the global epicentre for TB, with an estimated 2.8 million TB cases, and with TB killing more than 4,00,000 Indians …

Charting the course for accessible health care in cities
2 years, 3 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, …

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern
2 years, 5 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 …

Covid-19 Pandemic Has Shown Why There is a Pressing Need to Improve Healthcare Human Resources
2 years, 6 months ago

Covid-19 Pandemic Has Shown Why There is a Pressing Need to Improve Healthcare Human Resources

News 18  

The healthcare system in India has always been kept on a backseat and the ongoing pandemic has exposed the true condition of it. According to the WHO’s 2006 report, titled ‘World Health’, human resources of health is one of the core building blocks in a health system whose primary intent is to enhance health. Challenges Faced by Health Human Resources …

Health Day 2022: Managing chronic ailments through preventive care approach
2 years, 8 months ago

Health Day 2022: Managing chronic ailments through preventive care approach

Hindustan Times  

India has a humongous burden of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart ailments and respiratory illnesses and on the event of World Health Day 2022 this April 07, we got a few doctors on board to throw light on silent epidemics and how to manage these chronic ailments through preventive care approach. Silent epidemics: Managing chronic ailments through preventive care …

Reviving the ‘Kerala Model’ of development
2 years, 10 months ago

Reviving the ‘Kerala Model’ of development

The Hindu  

Kerala has long been recognised to have done many things right. For years the darling of development experts, non-governmental organisations and social activists, the ‘Kerala Model’ seemed to show that impressive levels of human development indicators — in health, education and quality of life, comparable even to some rich countries — could be achieved without a correspondingly high level of …

Budget 2022: Why healthcare policies need to factor entire value chain from prevention, diagnosis, treatment to insurance coverage
2 years, 11 months ago

Budget 2022: Why healthcare policies need to factor entire value chain from prevention, diagnosis, treatment to insurance coverage

Firstpost  

Union Budget 2022-23: The COVID-19 crisis experience has already highlighted the challenges faced by the healthcare sector Although healthcare has always been an evolving field with a focus on new therapies, drugs, diagnostic techniques, preventive medicine, and constant research, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that shifted attention to our preparedness in facing a healthcare crisis. Budget 2020-21 takeaways The Rs …

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth
2 years, 11 months ago

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth

Deccan Chronicle  

India’s economy has seen a sharp rebound after the first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to be the fastest growing major economy this year. Low government health expenditure leads to higher per capita out-of-pocket expenditure, impacting disposable incomes and access to healthcare. Therefore, India must increase its public expenditure on healthcare from the current 1.3 per …

Citizen’s engagement is the backbone of Universal Health Coverage
3 years ago

Citizen’s engagement is the backbone of Universal Health Coverage

Hindustan Times  

Covid-19 is a grim reminder of the fact that a robust health system is a necessity, not an option. The key components of the communitisation strategy under the NHM, include selection and training of a female community health activists--Accredited Social Health Activist to work as an interface between the community and public health system; constitution and strengthening of Village Health …

Care for health: Perspective on Indian healthcare sector in 2021 and beyond
3 years, 1 month ago

Care for health: Perspective on Indian healthcare sector in 2021 and beyond

Times of India  

Today, there is a clearly identifiable change in the way healthcare services are being delivered and perceived in India. Despite the impact of the second wave – and as the country has crossed the one billion plus vaccine doses landmark – there have been some highly encouraging takeaways from the healthcare operations in 2021. It is not only the massive …

Making India self-reliant in health care
3 years, 1 month 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 …

Lessons for India from Kerala’s Covid experience
3 years, 3 months ago

Lessons for India from Kerala’s Covid experience

Hindustan Times  

Many held Kerala up as a national and global example on how to manage Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. Based on statistical and scientific evidence on hand, it can be safely surmised that Kerala’s crisis is caused by a mutant strain of the original virus, and an extremely poor containment and home quarantine policy. As evident from …

Healthcare for all must be built on the voices of all
3 years, 4 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 vaccination drive is entering a challenging phase. Change strategies
3 years, 4 months ago

The vaccination drive is entering a challenging phase. Change strategies

Hindustan Times  

Despite improvements in daily vaccination numbers and the promise of increased supply, challenges persist in India’s vaccination drive. In mass public health campaigns, initial returns are often high on account of governments reaching the easily accessible sections quickly, and rapid coverage of the affluent and the non-hesitant population. In such circumstances, incentives to promote vaccination could become crucial to speed …

Winning the Covid-19 Battle in Rural India: A Blueprint for Action
3 years, 5 months ago

Winning the Covid-19 Battle in Rural India: A Blueprint for Action

Hindustan Times  

As India welcomed 2021, the country was reporting less than 15,000 new Covid-19 cases per day between mid-January and mid-February. Two of India’s largest and most populous states – Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—have also witnessed a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in their rural districts. Given the severe shortage of medical facilities in rural India, managing the spread of the …

Experiences of Rajasthan and HP frontline workers during pandemic
3 years, 5 months ago

Experiences of Rajasthan and HP frontline workers during pandemic

Hindustan Times  

Anganwadi Workers, Accredited Social Health Activists and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives form the locus of healthcare and nutrition delivery in rural India. Approximately 13.3 lakh AWWs, 9.3 lakh ASHAs and 2.3 lakh ANMs across the country serve as the first port of call for primary health and nutrition services, particularly in the domain of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health. …

For sustained recovery, focus on vaccination, rural India and infra push
3 years, 5 months ago

For sustained recovery, focus on vaccination, rural India and infra push

Hindustan Times  

The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic may have ebbed, but India cannot lower its guard. Over the last 14 months, while the pandemic ravaged global economies, India was adversely impacted too, with its Gross Domestic Product contracting by 23.9% in the April-June quarter of last year. After five different stimulus packages, the Narendra Modi government has now announced a …

The unseen cost of covid’s long shadow on India
3 years, 6 months ago

The unseen cost of covid’s long shadow on India

Live Mint  

NEW DELHI : The second wave of the pandemic might have ebbed, but Ritu Garg, a Gurugram-based doctor, has had no respite. “People are now coming in with diseases like cancer at an advanced stage, uncontrolled diabetes, heart ailments, and more," said Garg, zonal director at Fortis Memorial Research Institute. A World Health Organization survey released in May 2020 projected …

'One-Size-Fits-All Approach Untenable': Lancet Experts Recommend 8 'Urgent Actions' To Tackle Covid Resurgence In India
3 years, 6 months ago

'One-Size-Fits-All Approach Untenable': Lancet Experts Recommend 8 'Urgent Actions' To Tackle Covid Resurgence In India

ABP News  

New Delhi: In its June 12 issue, 'The Lancet' medical journal has addressed the coronavirus crisis witnessed in India and recommended eight "urgent actions" that need to be taken to tackle the resurgence as the pandemic spreads into rural populations. Here are the eight "urgent actions" suggested by the authors in 'The Lancet' journal to help India: The organisation of …

ASHA, ANM, Anganwadi Workers Bravely Fought COVID in Rural India. Time We Train & Equip Them Better
3 years, 6 months ago

ASHA, ANM, Anganwadi Workers Bravely Fought COVID in Rural India. Time We Train & Equip Them Better

News 18  

While the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India had seemingly spared rural populations, the recent surge in cases from May 2021 has severely impacted districts, towns and villages nationwide. Even as urban centres reported news of severe oxygen crises and lack of hospital beds, in villages across the country, people were losing their lives even before they could …

Rural India Accounted for 53% Covid-19 in May, Facing Excess Mortality, Reveals Report
3 years, 6 months ago

Rural India Accounted for 53% Covid-19 in May, Facing Excess Mortality, Reveals Report

News 18  

A new statistical report by the Delhi-based research organization, Centre for Science and Environment has revealed that in the month of May six districts in rural India accounted for over 52 percent of deaths due to Covid-19 and 53 percent of all new cases. As a result of the worsening of the situation in rural India amid the second wave, …

India's rural districts accounted for every second Covid death, 53% new cases in May: Report
3 years, 6 months ago

India's rural districts accounted for every second Covid death, 53% new cases in May: Report

India Today  

The pandemic has exposed the healthcare system in rural India, where the crisis of Covid-19 is largely a silent one. In May, six districts in rural India accounted for over 52 per cent of deaths due to Covid-19 and 53 per cent of all new cases of infection. Dismal condition of primary healthcare The report -- State of India's Environment …

Rural health care needs fixing, and now
3 years, 6 months ago

Rural health care needs fixing, and now

The Hindu  

The two consecutive waves of COVID-19 and Mucormycosis have left us shattered. The key role of health-care facilities in the rural areas is to provide regular and comprehensive health-care needs guided by the World Health Organization ’s principle of Universal Health Coverage, “ensuring that all people have access to needed health services of sufficient quality to be effective while also …

How are rural communities stemming covid-19’s spread?
3 years, 6 months ago

How are rural communities stemming covid-19’s spread?

Live Mint  

Three weeks ago, a 32-year-old father of three in Uttarakhand’s Mori tehsil died of covid-19. “Last year, covid-19’s effect was on our finances, as all of us in the village are dependent on tourism.” This time, it’s different. The community and NGO mobilisation has definitely helped, as we are building infrastructure not just for the current wave but for the …

What rural India needs right now to slow the spread of covid
3 years, 6 months ago

What rural India needs right now to slow the spread of covid

Live Mint  

Most primary health centres bordering Bengaluru, India’s tech capital, are shut through the day. “One person infects several others, and we’re noticing that if several people in one village get infected, the virus spreads to neighbouring villages in no time.” An SBI Research report on rural spread, published last week, concluded that between March and May 2021, the percentage of …

When COVID-19 goes to the villages: challenges of managing the pandemic in rural areas | The Hindu In Focus Podcast
3 years, 6 months ago

When COVID-19 goes to the villages: challenges of managing the pandemic in rural areas | The Hindu In Focus Podcast

The Hindu  

The COVID-19 pandemic has now entered rural parts of our country, where 65% of our population lives. Data from May shows that the case load is now 65% in rural and semi-rural areas versus 35% in urban and semi-urban areas. Even as hospitals in our cities are towns are overloaded and overwhelmed, our rural infrastructure is in danger of collapsing …

For rural India, it is the golden hour
3 years, 6 months ago

For rural India, it is the golden hour

Hindustan Times  

As it plays out, rural India will possibly be the final theatre in this round of the world’s war against the coronavirus. How we deal with it in rural India has huge implications for India’s health indicators, workforce, economic growth, Anganwadi-deprived children’s future – and the country’s politics. What can defeat it is the vaccine – whenever it is available …

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