Lancet report points out that India's healthcare is organised around facilities and schemes rather than patients. Accountability is weak, governance fragmented and coordination poor.
India supplies vaccines and generic medicines to much of the world. Yet at home, millions still leave hospitals without care. Clinics are shut, there is a shortage of doctors, or treatment stops because patients cannot afford it. A new Lancet report says this gap between promise and reality is not only about money, but about how India’s healthcare system is designed and run.
India continues to lag behind comparable countries when it comes to maternal health and children’s nutrition. While maternal and child survival and control of communicable diseases have improved, gaps remain. “Rates of malnutrition are high, 12 per cent of the population is undernourished, and 32.9 per cent of children younger than 5 years are stunted,” the report says.