'Looking for opportunity amid public misery'

Everyone is aware that health is wealth. Niti Ayog has stated in its latest report that India will achieve great progress in the private health sector as it offers huge investment opportunities in the days to come. Coming at a time when the country is in the grip of a pandemic, in addition to the communicable and non-communicable diseases, the report is quite astonishing.

Hyderabad (Telangana): The Ayog has stated that the hospital industry, which enjoys 80 per cent share in the country’s health sector is registering 16 to 17 per cent growth every year. The report has asserted that the sector will reach the level of 13,200 crore dollars in the next two years. If the growth in the pharma and medical equipment sectors is also taken into account, the medical services sector will reach the level of Rs 27 lakh crore by next year, the Ayog has said. It has also projected a positive picture in which it was stated that the sector will attract huge foreign direct investment. Health insurance, health tourism, telemedicine, technology-based medical services and other related sectors too will grow concomitantly generating 27 lakh additional jobs between 2017 and 2022, it said.

While maintaining that 65 per cent of hospital beds of the country are located in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, UP, Maharashtra and West Bengal, the Ayog felt that there is scope for increasing the hospital beds by at least 30 per cent in the remaining States.

Ours is a country where 6 crore people are annually slipping into poverty after paying the exorbitant hospital bills. One should recall the suggestion from the World Bank that 90 per cent of the diseases can be identified and cured at the primary health. Alas, the wise suggestion has always been overlooked. As a result, health services have degenerated into rich people’s prerogative.

As deadly diseases like Covid are raging virulently, governments should offer health security to the common man. But one is left to shudder at the mindset of the rulers-that-be in this crisis filled moment.

Efficient human resources are essential for the progress of any nation. Education and health are the two factors that help nurture individuals into progressively useful resources. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen had insisted that education and health care should remain in public sector no matter how many other windows of liberalization have been opened. His wise words only fell on deaf ears.

The World’s best health care systems are flourishing in Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, UK, Japan and Australia. However, India, which will be the World’s most populous country soon, is still in a pathetic stage where health care can be availed only by paying hefty sums.

The Niti Ayog maintains that 600 opportunities worth Rs 2.3 lakh crore await the private health sector in the second and third-tier towns of the country. The prospective growth of 7.3 crore people into the middle class is a positive factor in this regard, it says. The Ayog also opines that the prevalence of lifestyle diseases like high cholesterol, blood pressure and obesity coupled with the growing liquor consumption will tremendously increase demand for health services.

In what appears to be an attempt to turn someone’s bane into one’s own boon, the Ayog is seeing opportunities in people’s plight. At a time when crores of people are wallowing in their own misfortune, the right response would be to expand medical services through the public sector. Instead, people’s plight is being seen as an opportunity. What an unfortunate tendency is this?

The Supreme Court had asserted that the right to health includes affordable treatment. The government’s healthcare policy should also be on the same lines. Governments should breathe new life into primary health care sector. It should focus on measures that will help avert a hapless situation where the country will have to look for foreign investments in medical equipment and pharma sectors.