COVID-19: India's medical system needs a revamp

It is reported that private hospitals handled less than 10 per cent of the critical load of COVID-19 patients, besides charging an exorbitant price for treating them

- Asad Mirza

During the continuing Covid pandemic, one fraternity, which has been eulogised for its dedication and services in India, is the medical fraternity. Till date as per the Indian Medical Association (IMA), 1,017 doctors have died during the current pandemic since last year. The actual numbers may be higher as the doctors association only keeps a record of doctors registered with it. India has more than 12 lakh practising doctors.

Though every Indian is appreciative of the doctors and para-medical staff for their commitment to their profession and their unparalleled services to the needy, yet the overall medical system in the country seems to have suffered and this forces us to ponder and analyse the reasons for this and its plausible answers.

It may not be wrong to say that since independence though India’s defence budget has grown at an annual average rate of 9 per cent, with India being the third-largest military spender in the world in 2019, its spending on health sector has been coming down.

It is a fact that the government’s spending on health sector in India has been stuck at around 1% of GDP for close to 15 years. In 2004, the Government of India made a commitment to raise public spending on health to at least 2-3 per cent of GDP over the next five years. That did not happen. A similar commitment was reiterated in the 2017 National Health Policy, which commits to increasing public spending on health to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. Till now, we have not seen signs of any significant increase in health spending by the government.