Tuesday 23 May 2017

Healthcare shame: India ranked 154th out of 195 countries ranked by Lancet Medical Journal: DNA

Healthcare shame: India ranked 154th out of 195 countries ranked by Lancet Medical Journal: DNA This is not true: Indian Medical Association Dr KK Aggarwal National President IMA DNA has reported a Lancet study that India's poor ranking is primarily because of the rise in cases of tuberculosis (TB), diabetes, rheumatic heart disease and chronic kidney disease. India has failed to achieve in healthcare goals, badly lagging behind China, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in terms of accessibility and quality. India was ranked 154th position in the ranking of healthcare quality amongst 195 countries, whereas some countries like South Korea, Peru and China have seen greatest improvements in healthcare access and quality since 1990. China, with a score of 74 on the index, has been ranked at 82 - far ahead of India, and Sri Lanka has scored 73 on the index. Similarly, Brazil and Bangladesh have score 65 and 52, respectively. India performed worse than expected in TB, diabetes, rheumatic heart disease and chronic kidney disease. The 32 diseases for which death rates were tracked included TB and other respiratory infections, illnesses that can be prevented with vaccines - such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles - several forms of treatable cancer and heart disease, and maternal or neonatal disorders. I do not agree. This is not the correct picture. Government statistics are based on data from government set ups, which cater to only 20% of the society. The remaining 80% are seen by the private sector. When we say 10 million cases of TB are missing from government data, this does not automatically mean they do not get treatment. In fact they might be getting better treatment than the government sector. Private sector results for all these 32 diseases may be better than in the government sector. We should not extrapolate any inference from such studies. Unfortunately, British media is always negative with regard to the Indian health scenario. Why, we do not know? Most of their stories against India are negative. Is medical tourism in India responsible for it?

1 comment: