When American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel speaks on how no American family should be deprived of healthcare, you can’t help but feel disturbed. His observations ring true in an Indian context as well. Just last week, for instance, a domestic help in Mumbai complained that she was asked to wait for three months to get an MRI done in the government hospital she visited. Since the pain was unbearable, she did the next best thing suggested by her doctor and went to a private hospital, paid ₹6,000 and got on with her treatment. This, when her monthly earning is a little more than ₹2,500, with a family to support.

This is the reality in India. So why is there a long waitlist? Well, either government hospitals are poorly equipped or their equipment is under repair. An absurd situation that recently arose in a government hospital in the heart of Mumbai was that the equipment was available but the person operating it was on holiday!

Government-run hospitals need to be equipped to tackle the multitudes that flock their corridors. And this treatment needs to be free or subsidised for those from economically weak sections. Instead, public health services are knotted up in a bunch of problems including the most critical one of finance. Hospital administrators complain they don’t have the money for more staff and equipment.

Nothing can be more cruel for a tax-paying patient critically in need of medical intervention. Or as the woman running from hospital to hospital for an MRI puts it, how does the Government have money (₹3,500 crore to be precise) to erect a statue in the sea and more across the city but not for hospitals? A stinging indictment indeed on the state of our healthcare, and our priorities.

Deputy Editor

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW