What, in your opinion, is the biggest cause of concern about the status of healthcare in India?
Biggest concern about the status in India is the lack of awareness and the second greatest problem is the affordability. I would put slack of awareness, as the main problem rather than affordability because about 18-20% of the adult Bangaloreans are diabetics but a tiny percentage of them are aware of it because they never check their blood sugar.
Significant percentage of Indians are hypertensive but very few of them are on treatment because they never bother to check their blood pressure. Indians are genetically three times more vulnerable to heart attack than Europeans. In our practice it is not that the young son brings his old father for a bypass grafting surgery, but more often, it is the other around. Lack of awareness is the greatest problem.
Second problem of course is the affordability even though cost of healthcare in our country is much less than what it is in rest of the world. Very few people can afford it.
How can the government participate in the drive for better healthcare in the country?
The best way government can transform the way of healthcare is delivered in India is by being the healthcare promoter than a healthcare provider. Typical example is Yeshaswini of Karnataka state and Arogyashree in Andhra Pradesh. Yeshaswini Micro Health Insurance proved that it is possible to offer healthcare with five rupees a month and get even a heart operation done and Arogyashree of Andhra Pradesh proved that 80% of the state population can afford to undergo any major operation totally free by the government sponsored health insurance.
Why do you think there is a lack of comprehensive quality healthcare in India?
There is a lack of comprehensive quality healthcare in India because healthcare industry never attracts the kind of incentive IT industry gets or any other major industry gets. There has to be sufficient incentive for big groups to set up large hospitals in tier-II, tier-III cities.
How can we deal with the poor quality of women and children healthcare?
Women and children comprise 60% of our country's population. However, in terms of allotting finance for the healthcare and other expenses, women and children get the second preference compared to a man's life. In the process, if you go to any hospital, a larger number of beds are occupied by men compared to women and children.
What are the steps necessary to ensure wholesome healing that is targeted at the masses?
Government has to take the responsibility for advertising in order to create awareness about common ailments like diabetes, hypertension, and ill effects of smoking. Media houses, with their capability of influencing public opinion, should willingly allocate certain advertisement space for such awareness campaigns. Having said that, it is imperative for the government of our country to promote medical education. Statistics show that about 36,000 doctors are trained every year, this number should increase to at least 1 lac doctors to improve patient-doctor ratio. There is a need to increase the number of medical and paramedical education institutions. Easy educational loans and repayment options will help students to explore various options in the medical industry and shape their career. While policy makers have taken note of this, the requirement for collaterals for disbursing a loan may discourage aspiring students.
How does Narayan Hrudalaya play a role in achieving these goals?
Narayana Hrudayalaya's role is to create 5,000-bed Health Cities in every state capital of the country with the intension to achieve 30,000 beds by the next 5 years. Currently about 10% of the heart surgery done in India is done by our group. We want to drive higher volumes to ensure affordable healthcare. Also we are investing heavily on academic courses and healthcare research. Narayana Hrudayalaya hospitals will be there in every city, every state capital in every town and we would like to be offering primary healthcare in the villages within the next seven years.
