20/12/2019
Dr. Nitin Malekar, Scientific Communication Professional, turned entrepreneur, has been studying the healthcare sector for a while now, he has some very interesting insights into the relationship between patients and healthcare providers.
He says the success of the ambitious, Ayushman Bharat, healthcare reforms is yet to seen.
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Do You Believe, There is a ‘Trust Deficit’ Between Patients & Healthcare Providers?
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a huge healthcare reform, one of the largest in the world to shield poor families from costs of illness. A great initiative mostly considered as a populous measure before the 2019 elections. But surely, he has made a mark across the world with this positive health move on the 71st anniversary of our beloved country. “India is now the land of reform, perform and transform,” he pronounced on the eve of Independence Day.
But it is not an easy task, few months down the road, the attempt to overhaul India’s ill developed healthcare system is proving to be sheer uphill task. To ensure access to quality health services for the marginalised (poor) population in India is going to be hugely ambitious and potentially transformative undertakings. Especially when the out-of-pocket expenses account is whopping 67% of total health spending.
Currently, India’s public hospital system is reeling under the pressure of serving its huge population (more than 130 Crores), not to mention it’s poorly funded old infrastructure.
Debt trap initiated due to sudden illnesses is a common occurrence in Indian families, especially in rural folks (70 % of India stays in rural India with a limited access to healthcare). This cost is supposed to be shared by 60-40 formula between the Centre and states.
Ayushman Bharat has promised to offer 10 Crore poor families with Rs.500,000 health insurance cover, to keep them away from the debt trap, we wish to believe your promise PM Sir.
We are already experiencing the early hiccups like doctors and private hospital’s protest regarding the procedure pricing set by the government, as a result, many large urban hospitals may not support the health initiative and offer just a token support for the patients under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. And most of the patients will be forced to take services from the small hospitals & nursing homes, which may not have the required quality facilities & expertise.
We must also understand the unavailability of adequate or any privately provided primary healthcare in the rural regions of our country. Which will force the rural population to get help from the urban centers & these poor people may not get required care at a market-determined price for lack of affordability.
To ease the impending bottleneck situation, private hospital associations are hoping that the government will reassess the reimbursement rates for healthcare soon.
Would also like to draw reader’s attention to a basic question which is hurting the trust between different stakeholders in our healthcare system. The consistent reports of violence against doctors and hospitals points fingers towards the innate ‘Trust Deficit’ between patients & healthcare providers. If concrete measures are not undertaken to understand the cause & resolve the same at the roots, the entropy in the system will increase to unmanageable level.
It is not fair to blame healthcare providers who are pressured to offer quality healthcare at affordable cost to huge population (our doctor to patient ratio is dismal compared to world standards). Of course, there are some rotten apples in the system & they need to be weeded out.
A ‘Birdseye View’ need to be taken to address the issue, we need to bring all the stakeholders i.e. Government Authorities, Legal Experts, Medical Associations & Patient Representatives to be empaneled to find the solution, which will be able to rebuild the fast loosing trust between the important stakeholders. If we allow the situation to fester any more, it will only result in a gangrene, a un-revivable damage to our society.
