Public healthcare in India

I was triggered by a news report in CNNIBN today about present state of public healthcare systems in India to explore more on health care system. It was pathetic to see the conditions of nation’s Institutes like AIIMS and Safdharjung etc. and this clip explains everything

It was very sad to see the entire state of public health care system despite repeated reports and alerts given by independent studies, following report from PWC explains everything,
India’s healthcare infrastructure has not kept pace with the economy’s growth. The physical infrastructure is woefully inadequate to meet today’s healthcare demands, much less tomorrow’s. While India has several centers of excellence in healthcare delivery, these facilities are limited in their ability to drive healthcare standards because of the poor condition of the infrastructure in the vast majority of the country. Of the 15,393 hospitals in India in 2002, roughly two-thirds were public. After years of under-funding, most public health facilities provide only basic care. With a few exceptions, such as the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS), public health facilities are inefficient, inadequately managed and staffed, and have poorly maintained medical equipment. The number of public health facilities also is inadequate. For instance, India needs 74,150 community health centers per million population but has less than half that number. In addition, at least 11 Indian states do not have laboratories for testing drugs, and more than half of existing laboratories are not properly equipped or staffed.
This whole affair was let to the private players over the years and private parties made health care unaffordable to for 80% of Aam Aadhmies. Incidentally for past 5 years we had well qualified man for job (first time in recent history India had MBBS doctor as Union Health Minister) but this man spent entire tenure in settling score with Dr. Venugopal of AIIMS or making juicy statement against film stars smoking in Screen.
Hope few voters listen and give their best to these politicians….