India is celebrating 60 years since of independence and has got many new developments in the area of health care. Escorts heart institute and research centre ltd is a private hospital specializing in cardiac diseases.
Out of about 5500 operations done annually in this hospital 99. 2% of them succeed. It has 332 beds which are fully air conditioned, a receptionist who ushers in visitors, and a coffee shop with glass walls (Yomiuri Shimbun 2007).10% of 150,000 patients in the hospital are from 60 nations around the world and the cost of treatment is much cheaper compared to other countries.
In the United States it costs between 150,000 to 200,000 dollars for an operation which costs only 20,000 dollars in India. This price difference is said to be due to low personnel costs in India as well as increased operation costs in the United States as a result of increased medical law suits.India issues “medical visas” for foreigners as well as those who accompany them and this visa’s are valid for a year but can be extended. The minister for tourism who doubles as a minister for culture promotes this by arguing that foreign patients and those accompanying them visit beautiful sceneries after operations and spend money which would otherwise be used for treatment in their own country.
India is becoming “a medical power” since it produces many capable doctors who practice in Britain and United States as well as a growing pharmaceutical industry.This not withstanding public health institution are dilapidated due to insufficient funding and lack of doctors resulting in migration of doctors to private hospitals. In a city clinch in the Madapurhhader district, there is only one full time doctor who attends around 300 patients per day. According to world Health Organization (WHO) there are 645,825 doctors in India, the number of doctors per 1000 patients is 0.
6 in India, 2. 1 in Japan and 2. 56 in United States.According to Sami ran Nundy, a former medical professor this is due to decreased budgetary allocation which accounts to 0. 9% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Therefore, there are insufficient drugs in public hospitals. The ratio of doctors to patients in urban areas is 6 times higher compared to that in rural areas and this has associated with high concentration of doctors in urban cities and migration of others to overseas and private hospitals.Out of about 700,000 applicants to the all India’s institute of medical sciences (AIIMS), only 35 are admitted and out of this 70% of those who graduate work overseas. About 75 doctors at AIIMS hospital resigned in a period of 10 years and this was thought to be due to poor salary compared to their colleagues in the private sector. Furthermore there is no public health insurance system in India as there is in Japan due to economic growth and gap between the poor and the rich.
