question_answer 17)

Discuss the main drawbacks of our health care system.

Answer:

The main drawbacks of our health care system are as follows (i) Expenditure on health sector is 4.2% of total expenditure- from budgets of all states. This is abysmally low as compared to other countries, both developed and developing. (ii) In India, more than half of GBD is accounted for by communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and tuberculosis. Every year around five lakh children die of water-bodies diseases due to lack of health care. (iii) Health care system in India is not well equipped to fight against AIDS. (iv) Malnutrition and inadequate supply of vaccines lead to the death of 2.2 million children every year. (v) At present, less than 20% of the population utilises public health facilities. (vi) According to a study only 38% of the PHCs have the required number of doctors and only 30% of the PHCs have sufficient stock of medicine. (vii) People living in rural areas do not have sufficient medical in restructure. Rural India has only about half the number of dispensaries. Out of about 7 lakh beds, roughly 11 % are available in rural areas. There are only Q.36 hospitals for every one lakh people in rural areas. (viii) The PHCs located in rural areas do not offer even X-ray or blood testing facilities. (ix) Villagers have no access to any specialised medical care like paediatrics, gynaecology, anaesthesia and obstetrics.