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, dispense more medicines, serve more patients, and provide a wider range of services than they did 10 or 20 years ago”, the researchers found. The quality of health centres was “dismal”, some local sub-centres were dormant and others were non-existent. The study also documented social discrimination in health centres: some upper-caste doctors had “disparaging attitudes towards marginalised communities”, and upper-caste families routinely disrespected Dalit ANMs.

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History of this topic

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden
3 weeks 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 …

Rural health infra being fortified: Damodar Rajanaraimha
1 month ago

Rural health infra being fortified: Damodar Rajanaraimha

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is ramping up efforts to enhance medical infrastructure and increase the number of ambulances to ensure timely transportation of patients to nearby Primary Health Centres and hospitals during emergencies. Health minister C. Damodar Rajanarasimha, while laying the foundation stone for a Superspecialty Hospital and Mother and Child Health Care Centre in Mancherial, highlighted the government’s …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Health Matters | Here, for the healthcare highs and lows
1 year, 5 months ago

Health Matters | Here, for the healthcare highs and lows

The Hindu  

If we are lucky, it is a mixed bag at the health desk. Assaulted by stories of resurgence of diseases, or emergence of newer pathogen, and buffeted by questions of access to quality health care, we are irrevocably revived by some good news, some development, a reduction in the number of cases, a government scheme that will go an extra …

1,125 PHCs renovated in AP with ₹670 crore: Minister Vidadala Rajini
1 year, 5 months ago

1,125 PHCs renovated in AP with ₹670 crore: Minister Vidadala Rajini

Deccan Chronicle  

Visakhapatnam: State government has renovated 1,125 public health centres in the state under Nadu Nedu scheme, spending ₹670 crore during the last four years, said health and family welfare minister Vidadala Rajini on Tuesday. Further, the state government is planning to build 10,032 YSR Health Clinics by spending ₹1,692 crore. Similarly, Rajini said ₹1,223 crore has been sanctioned to build …

Country's Health Service Undergoing Rapid Transformation: PM Modi
1 year, 7 months ago

Country's Health Service Undergoing Rapid Transformation: PM Modi

News 18  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country’s health service is undergoing a “rapid transformation”, asserting that in the last nine years, the poor have realized that medical facilities are easily accessible to them. The PM said that the Ayushman Bharat scheme has played an important role in it and opened the door to not only government hospitals but …

CSDS-Lokniti health survey | How satisfied are people with health services?
1 year, 10 months 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 …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
1 year, 11 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. …

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, …

India@75: How India’s Health Report Since Independence Has Been Creditworthy
2 years, 4 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, 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 …

Bridging the gap in cancer care
2 years, 10 months ago

Bridging the gap in cancer care

Live Mint  

I aspire to live in a society where everybody lives cancer-free. Cancer prevalence in India The National Cancer Registry Programme mentioned in its report that 94.1 men per one lakh males in India and 103.6 women per one lakh females would be affected by one or the other form of cancer. The lack of cancer awareness in the masses coupled …

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway
3 years, 1 month 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 …

UP Govt To Open More Than 5,000 Health And Wellness Centres To Cater To Medical Needs of Rural Population
3 years, 1 month ago

UP Govt To Open More Than 5,000 Health And Wellness Centres To Cater To Medical Needs of Rural Population

News 18  

In an attempt to provide comprehensive primary health care services to the communities closer to their homes, over 5,000 health and wellness centres will be up in Uttar Pradesh, primarily to cater to the rural populace. The state government led by Yogi Adityanath in the span of the last four and a half years has worked in a planned and …

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 …

Wellness centre concept being promoted for community engagement
3 years, 3 months ago

Wellness centre concept being promoted for community engagement

The Hindu  

The concept of health and wellness centres is being promoted in the rural areas of Rajasthan to ensure community engagement and accountability for delivery of primary health care services amid the decline in the number of active COVID-19 positive cases. Sodani said here on September 18 the CHOs would help strengthen the existing health care facilities in the primary and …

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 …

First steps in the journey to universal health care
3 years, 10 months ago

First steps in the journey to universal health care

The Hindu  

About 20 years ago, Thailand rolled out universal health coverage for its population at a per capita GDP similar to today’s India. While the allocations still leave a lot to be desired, these could make the first steps of a journey that steadily builds towards sustainable universal health coverage through incremental strengthening of grass-root-level institutions and processes. Large expenditure projections …

Stopping the slide of health care in India
4 years ago

Stopping the slide of health care in India

The Hindu  

India’s health care is a dark echo chamber. What makes insurance and private health care an egregious combination is that the insurance backup incentivises hospitals to expand the bill but the patients do not get attended to in their best interests. In any case, insurance of secondary and tertiary care pushes out long-term investment by the state and people and …

Reimagining India’s Health System: The Lancet Citizens’ Commission
4 years 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 …

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children
4 years, 1 month ago

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children

Firstpost  

Undernutrition continues to be associated with 50 percent of all under-five deaths and India accounts for third of the world’s stunted children according to the Global Nutrition Report 2018. As Oxfam’s Commitment to Reducing Inequality highlights, India’s spending on public health is the fourth lowest in the world. The result is an impact on healthcare delivery where access to routine …

Mind the gaps in India’s health care digital push
4 years, 3 months ago

Mind the gaps in India’s health care digital push

The Hindu  

The Independence Day address of the Prime Minister launching the National Digital Health Mission during an unprecedented novel coronavirus pandemic crisis, caught everyone’s attention. ‘Going Digital’ has no doubt been a magic phrase that has often been repeated in multiple contexts in the country, and as yet another ‘Mission’ for the health sector, they waited Some progress There is no …

COVID-19 and a country club India must leave
4 years, 4 months ago

COVID-19 and a country club India must leave

The Hindu  

As a billion Indians watch with horror as the pandemic sweeps the land, many look with envy to countries to the east of us where the virus originated, and to the west of us in Europe which were devastated just a few months ago but appear to have beaten the bug and are starting to repair their societies. Comment | …

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