Tuesday, April 17, 2007

 

$ 50 B

What the numbers tell us

Experts often talk about there being two Indias. One that is made up of the 300 Million, urban and/or middle income people who make the consuming class that is largely responsible for the growth of the economy. The other that consists of the 700 Million, rural and/or poor who in many instances lack even basic amenities like drinking water or access to primary health care.

Was wondering if healthcare statistics would look different if we adjusted for the above..

Lets look at the total number of hospital beds. Approximately 9,00,000 we are told, with maybe 40,000-80,000 being added every year (it is time state governments implemented a licensing/registration policy for new healthcare facilities, so that we know atleast how many beds are being added every year). Using the 1 Billion number, it looks like the availability of Hospital Beds per 1000 Population (an average used by the World Bank and WHO for comparing countries, and used by everyone else to demonstrate their understanding of ground level realities) is around 0.9. Which makes us look bad when compared against developed countries like the US.

Given that a large number of the hospital beds are in urban/semi-urban areas, and that the most acknowledged challenge for the rural and/or poor population is access to healthcare, it is reasonable to assume that a big chunk of these beds cater to the 300 Million urban and/or middle income groups. When looked at this way, the availability of beds now jumps up to 3 per 1000 population. A figure that compares extremely favorably with the developed countries.

So what is the ground reality? Are we uniformly lacking in healthcare infrastructure, or is it just a classic case of skewed allocations, with the middle income groups being well provided for, and the poor having to make do with the occasional philanthropic initiative. Since this blog is not about policy making, I make no attempt to offer solutions to fix this problem. But one thing is certain. That, there is a huge, yet untapped opportunity in rural India for healthcare infrastructure. Not flashy hospitals, but well designed facilities that provide high standards of medical treatment that will obviate the need for a patient to travel to an urban center almost all the time.

Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?