Hyderabad: The countries of the World, including India, entirely dedicated this year to Covid-19. When countries having strong medical and health facilities and systems too were intensely shocked by the impact of the pandemic, one can only imagine the predicament of India, which is ranked 145th among 195 countries in terms of performance in public health.
India earmarks 1.3 per cent of its GDP to the health sector. It has been proven that with those meagre allocations it is impossible to withstand the deadly onslaught of a pandemic like Covid-19. The pandemic infected one crore people and killed more than 1.45 lakhs. Even though it is consoling to note that the intensity of the pandemic is on the wane, the appearance of a new strain of Coronavirus in UK is a matter of concern.
Every year more than 6 crore people go below the poverty line after suffering the blow of unbearable medical expenses. Covid-19 added insult to injury at a time when the populace was suffering from the loss of livelihoods. The apex court had rightly emphasized that the right to health includes affordable treatment. The Court had also lamented the unaffordable nature of Covid-19 treatment.
In the same backdrop, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has opined that when pandemics like Covid-19 raise their head, there should be control over private hospitals and arrangements should be made to prevent diversion of medicines to black-market. The panel also suggested a special system to fight pandemics within the purview of the National Disaster Management Authority. It advocated cashless medical treatment to all the insurance policyholders.
The deep-rooted malady suffered by our medical and health system cannot be treated only with such cosmetic applications. The need of the hour is an initiative to strengthen the public health system from the grassroots level.
It is worth recalling that the Supreme Court has also stated that even if one survives Covid-19, he is finished many times financially and economically. Therefore either more and more provisions are to be made by the State government and the local administration or there shall be cap on the fees charged by private hospitals, which can be in the exercise of the powers under the Disaster Management Act, the court said.
The directive principles of the Constitution of India lay down that amelioration of public health system is one of the fundamental duties of the government. As successive governments chose to ignore this constitutional directive, today we have a shortage of 6 lakh doctors and 20 lakh nurses, leading to an abysmal disparity between the urban and rural areas in terms of medical facilities. As a remedy for this unfortunate situation, the 15th Finance Commission suggested enhancement of allocations to the health sector. It called for increase in allocations to the health sector to 2.5 per cent of the GDP by the year 2024.
As scientists warn us to be wary of the pandemics like Covid-19, there is need to reform the Epidemic Act which is rooted in the British era to make it strong enough to fight pandemics of direst kind. Similarly, a strong system should be established so that the State and Central governments may stand surety to public health.
The UK’s National Health Service provides free medical services to all British citizens. All the medical services including ambulance, surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy are being provided free of cost to all of them. There is also facility to avail private treatment for the citizens covering themselves additionally with medical insurance.
We can realize Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) only when such universal medical services and insurance facilities are provided to the people of India by strengthening the medical and health sector with short, medium and long term strategies.
Also read: Global COVID-19 tracker
