{"id":276987,"date":"2024-01-09T19:03:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T13:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=276987"},"modified":"2024-01-09T19:03:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T13:33:38","slug":"how-surgical-care-in-india-is-a-neglected-part-of-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-surgical-care-in-india-is-a-neglected-part-of-public-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How surgical care in India is a neglected part of public health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:<\/strong> This post has been created based on the article \u201cHow surgical care in India is a neglected part of public health\u201d<\/strong> published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d<\/strong> on 9th <\/sup>January 2024.<\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: <\/strong>GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2013 Issues relating to Health<\/p>\n

News:<\/strong> The article discusses the issues with surgical care in India. It also highlights the reasons for a lack of access to surgery.<\/p>\n

What are the issues with surgical care in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Lack of Access: <\/strong>Like most low-and middle-income countries, India lacks access to surgical care. More than 90% of rural Indians are estimated to not have access to surgery when required.<\/li>\n
  2. Neglect in Health Policymaking and Planning: <\/strong>Lack of access, preventable disease burden due to surgery, and the economic toll of surgery on society are still not considered a part of mainstream public health.
    \nIt has received little attention in the recent National Health Policy 2017<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. No NSOAP: <\/strong>Since the publication of LCoGS, many countries initiated National Surgical Obstetric Anaesthesia Plans (NSOAPs)<\/strong> or equivalent policies. India presently has no NSOAP.<\/li>\n
  4. Lack of Investments:<\/strong> Lack of investments in data for monitoring and evaluation of surgical care indicators has also been a major roadblock.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How is surgical care undertaken in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    India\u2019s current surgical system is based on civilian initiatives and subnational programmes<\/strong> \u2014 including countless surgeon-led small private establishments and government district hospitals.<\/p>\n

    What do LCoGS indicators state about the situation of surgical care in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Low number of surgeries: <\/strong>In 2019-2020, India recorded more than 14 million minor surgeries (surgeries which do not require general or spinal anaesthesia). According to the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS),<\/strong> this is much less than the actual requirement of surgeries.<\/p>\n

    Low rate of surgeries: <\/strong>It is somewhere between 166 and 3,646 surgeries per 1,00,000, depending on the setting, population, and other factors. For New Zealand, this figure is 5,000 surgeries per 1,00,000 people.<\/p>\n

    What are the reasons for a lack of access to surgery?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    India\u2019s limited data on LCoGS indicators reveals several reasons for this:<\/p>\n

    First<\/strong>, the inability to reach the hospital on time.<\/strong> This is due to a lack of facilities, poor road network, and lack of vehicles. These problems are more common in rural and hilly areas (with more than 2-3rd<\/sup> of the population).<\/p>\n

    Second<\/strong>, lack of necessary resources for treatment.<\/strong> For instance, a surgeon, an anaesthetist, and some other clinical staff are essential to perform surgery. The size of this trained manpower workforce is small in several parts of India.<\/p>\n

    Third<\/strong>, disparities based on location, incomes, etc. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Fourth<\/strong>, issues over the quality of surgical care.<\/strong> This quality depends on the training of the surgeons, the availability of necessary equipment, etc.<\/p>\n

    Fifth<\/strong>, the financial burden on people who are forced to seek care in private hospitals.<\/strong> This is due to the absence of universal healthcare coverage and limited surgical care in public health facilities.<\/p>\n

    Question for practice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    What are the reasons for a lack of access to surgery in India? What steps can be undertaken to improve this sector of India\u2019s healthcare?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cHow surgical care in India is a neglected part of public health\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 9th January 2024. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2013 Issues relating to Health News: The article discusses the issues with surgical care in India. It… Continue reading How surgical care in India is a neglected part of public health<\/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":[212,8131,10498],"class_list":["post-276987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-issues","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":24,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704838803},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276987","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=276987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}