A superb speech by Nachiket Mor. He continues his transition from a banker to a development expert.
There are some interesting facts on healthcare in India:
At over 3 million square kilometres, stretching 3,000 kilometres from one tip to another, in both directions, with a population crossing 1.2 billion individuals living in over 600,000 habitations, India is one of the largest countries in the world. Some our districts have populations that are comparable to entire countries. For example, Burdwan District of West Bengal at 8 million has a population comparable to that of Bolivia in Latin America. The resources at our disposal are extremely limited however. On average, as a country, we annually spend Rs.2500 or $55 per capita on healthcare with the government spending only about Rs.500 or $11 per capita. This is a miniscule number when compared with a developed-nation average of $5,000 per capita and is smaller even than the amounts being spent by our neighbours China and Thailand who both spend over $150 per capita on health care with, in the case of Thailand, over 75% of that being borne by the government.
That is really low.
He says in India the problem is we have very few doctors and even fewer ready to work in rural areas. Our disease burden s growing every year. He says we need to relook at the design of the healthcare system in India. There are for issues:
- Human Resources
- Infrastructure
- Interventions
- Financing
