Why Are Our Tertiary Care Hospitals Always Crowded?

SHORT ANSWER TO the title question is that our ‘Public Health Care System’ is grossly inadequate and whatever is in place is also not working to its optimum capacity.

- Krishan Kalra

Let me look at some facts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends ‘3 hospital beds per 1000 population’. Affluent countries like Germany and Austria have seven to eight! To meet the guideline, we need about 42 lakh hospital beds. As per information available, in 2021, we had a total of 8.25 lakh beds – that translates to nearly 0.6 beds/1000 persons – which is indeed woefully short. Before I proceed further, let me mention that ‘Public Health & Hospitals’ in India is a ‘state subject’ and state authorities often do not post information on time and accurately.

Therefore, this figure of 8.25 lakh beds may not be correct and there might have been improvements. Even then we could’ve inched up to 0.8 or one bed/1000 population – long way to reach the 42 lakh total in all government and private hospitals!

Ayushman Bharat

Our public health system – which is charged with the objective of ‘preventing disease, prolonging life, improving health and efficiency of the people’ – has of course, seen vast upgradations but still needs much more. A remarkable scheme, introduced by the government – ‘Ayushman Bharat’ – deserves special mention and is expected to provide significant succour to the poor. Our spend on healthcare has moved ever so slowly from 1.12 per cent of GDP in FY2010 to 1.35 per cent in FY2020. A recent ET edit mentioned that Central & State governments’ budgeted expenditure on health, for FY2023, is 2.1 per cent of GDP and the NHP plans to increase it to 2.5 per cent in FY2025.