{"id":235019,"date":"2023-03-29T19:23:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T13:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=235019"},"modified":"2023-03-29T19:23:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T13:53:45","slug":"healthcare-in-india-has-made-great-progress-but-challenges-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/healthcare-in-india-has-made-great-progress-but-challenges-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare in India has made great progress, but challenges remain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cHealthcare in India has made great progress, but challenges remain<\/strong>\u201d published in The Indian Express <\/strong>on\u00a029th<\/sup> March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Issues Related to Healthcare<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>challenges with healthcare<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The article discusses the progress made in healthcare and associated challenges.<\/p>\n

What are some of the progresses made in healthcare?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was believed that India would achieve a total fertility rate of 2.1 only by 2041.<\/p>\n

However, as per the recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5),<\/strong> India achieved it by 2020 and hospital deliveries even in the backward states have increased to 89 percent. However, challenges in healthcare still remain.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges with healthcare in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Diseases:<\/strong> Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) and diabetes are prevalent.\u00a0These are caused by an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity and use of tobacco and alcohol.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As per a report, the proportion of deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has increased from around 38 percent in 1990 to 62 percent in 2016.<\/p>\n

Obesity has increased from 19 per cent to 23 per cent<\/strong> between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. This increases the risk of diabetes, hypertension, and CVD.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure:<\/strong> The government is building primary healthcare by establishing health and wellness centres. However, as per a recent report, there is a huge variation between states.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example<\/strong>, some states like Mizoram and Gujarat had better healthcare arrangements in their health centres while the situation was grim in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n

Urban areas:<\/strong> The challenge in the urban areas lies in bridging the gap in hospital services between large urban agglomerations and tier II and tier III cities.<\/p>\n

As per a Lancet report, the provision of core health services is not uniform across state-run district hospitals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example,<\/strong> while only 16 percent of the district hospitals in Tamil Nadu offered all key services, it was just 1 per cent in Mizoram and UP.<\/p>\n

Private hospitals:<\/strong> Private hospitals own two-thirds of the country\u2019s hospital beds.<\/p>\n

Large hospital like Apollo, Fortis, Max, account for just 4-5 percent of the beds while standalone hospitals and nursing homes provide 95 percent of private hospital beds.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, standalone hospitals and nursing homes are unable to provide multi-specialty, leave alone tertiary and quaternary care.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, there is a need to bridge the gap between services available in the metros and big cities and in districts. This can be done by making the centrally-run hospital and the district hospitals fully functional.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Health Insurance:<\/strong> Schemes such as the <\/strong>Ayushman Bharat<\/strong><\/a>, the Employees State Insurance (ESIC), and CGHS<\/strong> have covered nearly 74 percent of Indians.<\/p>\n

However, millions remain uninsured.\u00a0Out-patient doctor consultation costs, diagnostics, and drugs account for the 50 percent of out-of-pocket (OOP) personal expenditure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is, therefore, essential to provide insurance for the unorganised middle class and to include identified out-patient costs.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technology:<\/strong> These would bring revolution in healthcare. However, ethical and regulatory concerns remain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Due to this, Indian Council of Medical Research released guidelines<\/strong><\/a> for the lack of accountability for machine-made medical decisions. However, regulations are also needed for substandard institutions and for unqualified medical practitioners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cHealthcare in India has made great progress, but challenges remain\u201d published in The Indian Express on\u00a029th March 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Issues Related to Healthcare Relevance: challenges with healthcare News: The article discusses the progress made in healthcare and associated challenges. What are some of the progresses… Continue reading Healthcare in India has made great progress, but challenges remain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-235019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}