India needs to focus on healthcare: Study

NEW DELHI - Even as Indian economy is booming, the public healthcare system has gone on the backfoot and immediate attention is needed to upgrade the services, a study by medical magazine Lancet said Tuesday.

A collection of seven papers by leading experts was published Tuesday by Lancet.

“India is experiencing a period of record growth, with its economy rapidly progressing to make it one of the biggest players in the world. But its healthcare and public health systems are completely inadequate to address the needs of its population that continues to grow,” an official statement from Lancet said.

“India’s public healthcare system is overwhelmed by the infectious disease burden, which is driving many families to use the private sector where the costs of treatment can be crippling,” the first paper from the series said.

“Only a functional public health infrastructure shared between central and state governments, with adequate infectious disease and epidemiology training of personnel, can prevent and control diseases in order to reduce the burden on the healthcare system,” it said.

According to the research, some 1.8 million children under the age of die in India every year. Some 68,000 mothers die due to maternal causes and 52 million children in the country are stunted.

The Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health will probably not be met due to insufficient coverage of priority interventions, sub-optimum performance of established intervention packages, and inequities in access.

The Lancet calls on the country to establish a truly universal healthcare system by 2020 with a detailed plan for the future included as a call to action in the final paper.