It is no surprise that the medical sector of India is appalling when compared to our competing nations, but we get away with it by masquerading as a ‘developing country’. However, with the onslaught of a pandemic that was predicted to happen, India needs to pull up its socks to gather momentum in its healthcare and medical equipment department.
Why India’s Healthcare Is Inadequate
Our current situation because of the spread of the Coronavirus shows how weak the disaster preparation of our country’s hospitals truly is, and the same mistake has been committed by other leading countries as well. The United States Of America has been reporting a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases and its death rate is significant as well. But this can’t be used as an excuse for a country like India to ignore our inadequacy and keep focusing on issues that divert attention from severe problems like our healthcare sector.
What Stats Show That India Can’t Provide Basic Life Support To Its Citizens
For example, in India, for a heart attack victim to reach a hospital in an ambulance to get emergency treatment, it takes him/her 400 minutes. 400 minutes. The ideal transportation window is about 30 minutes to save the patient’s life by performing emergency procedures, but we take 370 minutes more than for it to be the most effective. After 180 minutes, the heart vessels suffer irreversible damage due to lack of blood supply but our ambulances still take more than 6 hours on average to take a heart attack victim to a hospital. Moreover, only 50% of the said cases are taken to the hospital, the rest never do receive ambulance services during a heart attack.
But these are ambulances we are talking about. If we dive into the situation of hospitals in India, it is both amusing and scary how weakly planned the medical sector of the world’s largest democracy is. 74% of doctors in India serve the 28% of the urban population, leaving the healthcare of 72% of the population living in rural areas dangling by a thread. Although it is not all bad, the Aayushman Bharat Scheme will cover up to Rs 5 lakh for 10 crores at-risk Indian families, most of them residing in rural areas or urban slums. Still, the healthcare that an average Indian receives is in no shape or form adequate for a person.
Why Is Indian Healthcare Not Improving After Major Efforts By Everyone
There are several reasons why Indian healthcare continues to decline year after year despite government efforts and awareness raised among the population. A mere 1% of the GDP was spent on the Indian public healthcare system in the year of 2015. In a country where a third of its population is living below the poverty line, public healthcare must be pulled out of its inadequacy.
The number of beds in Indian hospitals amounts to 7,13,986. This means that there are 0.55 beds for every 1,000 people in the country. If this stat wasn’t scary enough 12 states that make up for over 70% of India’s population lie below the 0.55 beds per 1000 people figure. The worst state is Bihar with only 0.11 beds per 1000, while states like Karnataka(8.6), Tamil Nadu(7.6), and Kerala(7.4) are some of the better ones.
This disparity is caused due to financial mismanagement in the public healthcare sector of India. Due to a tremendously low budget for an enormous population, the public healthcare of India cannot, not even on paper, serve the massive population that is dependent on it for treatments and other medical care. Private healthcare expenditure amounts to over 75% of the total expenditure on healthcare, a massive proportion for a country of our size. The Indian healthcare department plays a major role in continuing the cruel cycle of systematically keeping the rich, rich, and the poor, poor.
Because of a majority of healthcare options in India are beyond the capabilities of a person living below the poverty line, they either have to resort to poor public healthcare or no healthcare at all, while the rich people who can afford private healthcare make no strides in fixing the oppressive system
What Can Be Done To Fix The Indian Healthcare System?
There are a lot of ways to go on about fixing the Indian healthcare system, but the most effective way would be more financial investment by the government. An increase in the proportion of GDP that is utilized by the public healthcare system would go a long way in increasing and improving the facilities of government hospitals.
An increase in expenditure can also be diverted towards paying government doctors more as the quality of practitioners in government hospitals and private hospitals is worlds apart. More money can attract talented but philanthropic practitioners towards public healthcare, ultimately leading to two birds being killed with one stone: Indian citizens receiving better healthcare and practitioners being compensated handsomely for providing said better healthcare. It is a big dream but the motion of big dreams should be set in early on.
How does Ziqitza Help?
Ziqitza Healthcare ltd is a private emergency service provider that operates in a total of 16 states of India. It was co-founded by CFO Manish Sacheti in Rajasthan but has now moved its operations to Mumbai. Ziqitza is the largest social enterprise not only in India but in sub-Asia as well. We employ over 10,000 people involved in our blue/white-collar jobs and provide the people of India with the best emergency healthcare services they deserve. Ziqitza Limited is also experienced in operating health helplines across the country and operating private ambulances for individuals and Corporate wellness solutions.
Moreover, Ziqitza Healthcare is involved in a multitude of public-private services. Ziqitza operates the national COVID-19 helpline 104, and since March 2020 we have handled over 16.3 lakh distress calls. Ziqitza operators are professionally trained to handle grievance and distress calls and handle them based on urgency. All of our employees are determined in helping you out to the fullest.
As the ambulances of India are in frightful conditions, Ziqitza Healthcare ltd has launched MMUs(mobile medical units) that provide basic and advanced life support systems as India reports an absurdly high number of preventable ambulance deaths. To know more about our MMUs click here.
Due to Ziqitza’s standardized protocols, quick response strategies, and trained staff, we are proud to announce that Ziqitza Healthcare has been awarded two prestigious emergency healthcare awards:
- Best Post-Crash Service’ at the FICCI Road Safety Awards
- Integrated referral transport Ambulance Service in Madhya Pradesh at the Elets Annual Healthcare Excellence Awards
At Ziqitza, we aim to provide Indian citizens with emergency services better than the international standard through our dependable, hardworking staff, world-class equipment, and a zeal to help out people in need.
If you found this blog helpful check out more of us at our blog and read up more on our ambulance services here.