The plight of healthcare in India is quite relevant from the fact that 15% of India's population has no access to healthcare services.
Let's talk more statistics!
More than 75% of doctors practice in urban areas, 23% in towns and only 2% in rural areas.
As on 31st March, 2015, there were 153655 Sub Centres, 25308 Primary
Health Centres (PHCs) and 5396 Community Health Centres (CHCs)
functioning in the country. While the Sub Centres, PHCs and CHCs have
increased in number in 2014-15, the current numbers are not sufficient to
meet their population norm.
For more on that : Click Here

Currently, India has approximately 860 beds per million population.
This is only one-fifth of the world average, which is 3,960, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It is estimated that 450,000 additional hospital beds will be required by 2014.
The government is expected to contribute only 15-20 per cent of the total, providing an enormous opportunity for private players to fill the gap.
According to WHO statistics there are over 250 medical colleges in the modern system of medicine and over
400 in the Indian system of medicine and homoeopathy (ISM&H).
India produces over 250,000 doctors annually in the modern system of medicine
and a similar number of ISM&H practitioners, nurses and para professionals.
More than 136 medical schools admit 6,000 odd PG trainees in their programmes.


In order to meet manpower shortages and reach world standards, India would require investments of up to $20 billion over the next five years. 40 per cent of the primary health centres in India are understaffed.




There are a number of critical issues regarding healthcare that needs to be addressed.
I am enumerating some of those.
1. There is a lack of vision among the people in power regarding the Healthcare Infrastructure.
The Government of India seems to be having a sceptical approach in dealing with the situation.
Despite a rapidly growing economy, expenditure on public healthcare has continually contracted.
India spends about 1% of its GDP on public health, compared to 3% in China and 8.3% in the United States.

2. According to the Ministry of Health in India, each year a whopping 63 million people face poverty
due to “catastrophic” healthcare expenditure, which neutralizes any gains made due to rising income
and various government schemes aimed at reducing poverty.
And according to the World Bank and National Commission’s report on macroeconomics, only 5% of Indians are covered by health insurance.

3.There is a lack of standardization and the growth of private sector has further deteriorated the public services.

4.There is a dire need of skilled medical graduates, especially in rural areas.
We need a skilled workforce and investments to ensure that we provide better facilities to people residing in rural areas.

The government needs to show determination in this regard. It can raise resources in many number of ways, from reallocation of subsidies to optimization of welfare budgets or by working with state governments.

Write - Up  : Rohan Singh