Medical experts talked about gaps in delivering healthcare servicesComing together to deliberate upon various aspects of the health sector, ranging from shortage of doctors to monitoring the private sector, medical experts talked about crucial gaps in delivering healthcare services in a discussion held in India International Center (IIC).
The discussion, titled, “Crucial Gaps in Delivering Health Care: What’s Done What’s Ignored” saw them suggest ways to meet demands related to informal health workforce and unqualified practitioners.
Shailaja Chandra, former Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and former Chief Secretary, Delhi, said, “In India, life expectancy has gone up. We’ve also reached European level of fertility, barring some states, which will reach the ideal rate in coming years. Communicable diseases are down to 30%. We should be glad the Ayushman Bharat scheme gives a sense of security to 30 crore people, but there is still a snag, as it only looks after hospitalised patients.”
“India will be unable to scale up to the ambition…if we don’t have adequate human resources. We’ve failed to develop policies on the requirement of doctors vis-a-vis the disease burden. There is a need to produce doctors to a certain type of disease burden…,” said K Sujatha Rao, former Health Secretary, Government of India.
Prof K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), said: “To ensure more accountability in the system, we need a regulator. We must distinguish between professional and industrial issues.”
