The right to health is a fundamental right and not a favour doled out by successive governments at the Centre and the state. With elections being held in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur this year, it’s time people used their vote to demand their right to health.
A déjà vu moment from Odisha this week once again put the spotlight on the unacceptable gaps in India’s public health delivery.
Gati Dhibar carried his dead five-year-old daughter Sumi on his shoulder for 15 km from the Palahada Community Health Centre (CHC) in the Angul district in Odisha to his village for cremation after he was couldn’t get a hearse at the hospital. Too poor to pay for transport, Dhibar’s plight echoes two similar incidents in Odisha last year – one in Malkangiri district where a man walked six km with his seven-year-old daughter’s body after the ambulance taking them to the hospital left them midway after learning that the girl had died, and the other in the Kalahandi district, where a man carried his dead wife for more than 10 km after the government hospital, where she died, refused him an ambulance.
Nationwide blight
Similar gut-wrenching reports from other states underline the breakdown of India’s public health system, which continues to struggle with budget cuts and human resource shortfalls. At 1.26% of the GDP, India’s public health spending is among the lowest in the world, with Centre’s share steadily decreasing compared to state spend. In 2009-10, the Centre’s share of the total public health expenditure was 36%, which came down to 30% in 2014-15.
This makes India’s annual per-capita health spend at USD 16, compared to Australia’s USD 4,070, Canada’s USD 3,991 and Sri Lanka’s USD 45. Low public spending forces people to pay for expensive medicines and treatment at private hospitals, which account for 70% of health delivery. As a result, healthcare costs push 63 million people into poverty each year. Health is a state subject, with wide disparities existing in delivery and access to treatment across states, and rural and urban population. Delhi remains India’s best performing state, where the average spending is 10.1% of its total spending since 2010-11.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/the-sad-tales-from-odisha-tell-why-you-need-to-vote-for-healthcare/story-0fR5Ha9EnC8Kmx7lKA2l4M.html
A déjà vu moment from Odisha this week once again put the spotlight on the unacceptable gaps in India’s public health delivery.
Gati Dhibar carried his dead five-year-old daughter Sumi on his shoulder for 15 km from the Palahada Community Health Centre (CHC) in the Angul district in Odisha to his village for cremation after he was couldn’t get a hearse at the hospital. Too poor to pay for transport, Dhibar’s plight echoes two similar incidents in Odisha last year – one in Malkangiri district where a man walked six km with his seven-year-old daughter’s body after the ambulance taking them to the hospital left them midway after learning that the girl had died, and the other in the Kalahandi district, where a man carried his dead wife for more than 10 km after the government hospital, where she died, refused him an ambulance.
Nationwide blight
Similar gut-wrenching reports from other states underline the breakdown of India’s public health system, which continues to struggle with budget cuts and human resource shortfalls. At 1.26% of the GDP, India’s public health spending is among the lowest in the world, with Centre’s share steadily decreasing compared to state spend. In 2009-10, the Centre’s share of the total public health expenditure was 36%, which came down to 30% in 2014-15.
This makes India’s annual per-capita health spend at USD 16, compared to Australia’s USD 4,070, Canada’s USD 3,991 and Sri Lanka’s USD 45. Low public spending forces people to pay for expensive medicines and treatment at private hospitals, which account for 70% of health delivery. As a result, healthcare costs push 63 million people into poverty each year. Health is a state subject, with wide disparities existing in delivery and access to treatment across states, and rural and urban population. Delhi remains India’s best performing state, where the average spending is 10.1% of its total spending since 2010-11.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/the-sad-tales-from-odisha-tell-why-you-need-to-vote-for-healthcare/story-0fR5Ha9EnC8Kmx7lKA2l4M.html