Taluk GHs, lifeline of rural areas, lie in limbo
The Hindu
Madurai's public healthcare system struggles to meet the needs of rural residents, highlighting the disparity between public and private healthcare.
For people like M. Singaperumal, 60, of Tirumangalam, who pulls cart for a living, going to a private hospital or clinic if he falls sick is out of the question. Daily wagers like him just cannot afford the high fees and prescribed medicines.
“Even to buy a fever tablet, I travel all the way from my village to Tirumangalam Government Hospital. With the ₹300 I earn in a day, I have to manage my family’s health expenses and buy groceries, too,” he says.
“But if I had money, I will certainly go a private hospital. Because I have to waste a whole day waiting at the GH to see the doctor,” he says.
A National Sample Survey Office survey in 2015 revealed that about more than half of India’s rural population uses private healthcare, which is four times as costly as public healthcare, and can cost the poorest 20% of Indians more than 15 times their average monthly expenditure.
Another of its recent survey revealed that 48% of overnight trips made by millions of Indians from rural areas (25% in urban areas) are for medical purposes.
Pointing to the survey, a government taluk hospital Chief Medical Officer (CMO) says all these journeys people make reflects the failure of public-health system in the world’s fastest growing economy.
While treatment for fever and minor ailments are available at the local Primary Health Centres (PHCs), major diagnosis or surgeries can be done only at headquarters hospitals, he adds.
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