For policymakers and those seriously concerned about healthcare, a viewing of TedX Gateway Webinar with Dr. Zarir F Udwadia (Pulmonologist) which can be viewed here, should be made mandatory.
It sends across one message that is stark and simple – the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is not the end of the story. There will be more casualties and even more epidemics. India needs to be prepared. And this is precisely what policymakers have not focussed on. Not even in the Atma Nirbhar presentations.
There was much expectation, and need, for the government to focus on healthcare. This was on account of several reasons.
First, just look at our government hospitals. See the crowds milling around, even before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The reason for the crowds being there is obvious to anyone familiar with the India scene. Most patients are poor and cannot afford private hospitals. Moreover, many of the private hospitals are poorly equipped, but fleece the poor and the ignorant. And the crowds are huge because the government has not invested enough on healthcare.
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Pakistan has more doctors and hospital beds than India has for every 1,000 people (see chart). India has become a story of exploiting the poor. These funds are invariably transferred to people from whom politicians get their votes.
Second, despite going to government hospitals, the poor often find that they have to go back to private doctors and clinics, because the government hospitals either complain about medicines not being available, or the x-ray or sonar equipment being out of order, or (shockingly) even the pathology lab not working. Look outside JJ Hospital in Mumbai and look at the innumerable cubby-holes of shops mushrooming on the side roads. These are clinics to which hospital staff send poor patients because they say the machines are not working. As a result, the average Indian spends more out of pocket on healthcare (as a percentage of income) than most people in the world.
Source: The Free Press Journal
