Re-Building Trust

A trustable healthcare system is one where patients’ interests are proactively sought and addressed

- Dr Garima Singh

The recent flak from the Government of India and the media at large, questioning the motives of doctors and private hospitals, implies trust deficit or feeling that this segment is always trying to fool patients for money.

In this age of internet and social media, there is never before kind of access to information and opinions. We are becoming more and more interconnected and this inter connectedness will only increase with time. To survive this ‘age of transparency’, the only way to respond is by enhancing trust ability.

A trustable healthcare system is one where patients’ interests are proactively looked out for. It is a healthcare system where what the patients say is far more important than what leaders in this segment say and where patients want to get treated because they know the system acts in their interest. Going by this definition, most Indians prefer treatment in private healthcare sector on account of better care, better technology and easy access. However, many patients believe that their interests are not kept paramount and that many decisions are taken for financial gains.

For the goodness of Indian private healthcare system to be visible to the masses, there has to be a systemic change in the patient seeking behaviour, in the authorities that are meant to regulate and uphold good medical practises, in the medical care providers and investors/ people who run these institutions. These actions will initiate a gradual movement towards rebuilding the lost trust.