The Menace of Inflated MRPS on Medicines

THERE ARE SO MANY problems with our ‘Healthcare’ system that I am at a loss, where to begin. From crowds at the iconic AIIMS as well as major private hospitals, mortally sick patients being turned away either for want of money or due to shortage of beds, babies delivered outside hospital doors, fake medicines to unnecessary diagnostic tests and even surgeries, rampant kickbacks; there are all kinds of stories floating around.

- Krishan Kalra

Meantime, people continue to suffer, many mortgage their houses to pay for treatment, others just die as they are unable to afford it.

Putting in place a ‘universal healthcare’ system for all is perhaps not feasible for the government – the resources required are humungous – and the private sector can barely take care of their own senior people. Even the reach of their CSR funds is limited to a few ‘memorial hospitals and institutes’ which manage to corner cheap prime land from the government, on the express condition of providing a certain number of ‘free beds’ to the poor, but more often, these are appropriated for extending favours.

We have an ironic situation. India has the best of doctors – our physicians and surgeons in almost all specialties are as good as, if not better than, those in advanced economies. There is a ‘culture of empathy and caring for the needy’; our new-age private sector hospitals are equipped with the latest machines and robots.

Yet, we see so much suffering and misery all around! Even the so-called ‘upper middle class’ is unable to cope with medical costs when someone in the family needs to be hospitalised. Perhaps the only explanation is that the number of hospital beds and doctors is woefully inadequate for our huge population.

What can we do to mitigate the situation?