For any country to progress in all means health should be the primordial component. A sound mind lives in a sound body. A healthy person will be more creative productive and imperative. Therefore governments should focus on the maintenance of the health of their people. In this background the emphasis of the World Health Organization on Universal health coverage (UHC) is vital. It means that all people should have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across the life course. The delivery of these services requires healthcare workers with an optimal skills mix at all levels of the health system, who are equitably distributed, adequately supported with access to quality-assured products, and enjoy decent work. Side by side a robust infrastructure equipment and other essential medicines should be available 24/7 for everyone in need.
Protecting people from the financial consequences of paying for health services out of their own pockets reduces the risk that people will be pushed into poverty because the cost of needed services and treatments requires them to use up their life savings, sell assets, or borrow – destroying their futures and often those of their children. In several studies, it was evident that the poverty of a particular community or country or people is directly dependent on morbidity and sickness of the people.
In 2019 at the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on UHC, countries reaffirmed that health is a precondition for and an outcome and indicator of the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Achieving UHC is one of the targets the nations of the world set when they adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. WHO’s thirteenth general program of Work aims to have 1 billion more people benefit from UHC by 2025, while also contributing to the targets of 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies and 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.
Under this background Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) was launched as a step towards Universal Health Coverage which entails ensuring all people to have access to quality health services including prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation without incurring financial hardship. The concept covers three key elements access, quality, and financial protection. India is committed to achieving Universal Health care for all by 2030, which is fundamental to achieving the other Sustainable Development Goals.
As we are living in the Covid times while reviewing the status since the great influenza pandemic of 1918, a pandemic of such magnitude as COVID-19, a deadly disease is yet to be confronted. While the pandemic led to unpredicted challenges globally as well as at the country level, it also brought forth certain perennial issues. When we attempt to resume some of the major challenges faced by healthcare professionals, health infrastructure in India during the pandemic, timely interventions by the government of India dealt with several challenges confronted by the healthcare sector. However, issues about working hours, mental health, safety, and security of healthcare professionals also need to be looked into in the future as Covid has become endemic in some parts of the world. “Health is the greatest of human blessings” as stated by – Hippocrates, hence the Future of Healthcare in India is in the hands of people at large and the rulers have to harmoniously unravel the challenges and generate opportunities. The message is clear – we must strive to raise awareness in those whom we work with and must encourage the younger generation to believe in the power of education for behavior change.
Access (to healthcare) is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The right or opportunity to use or benefit from (healthcare)” Again, when we look beyond the somewhat well-connected urban populations to the urban underprivileged, and to their rural counterparts, the question “What is the level of access of our population to healthcare of good quality?” is an extremely relevant one. A 2002 paper speaks of access being a complex concept and speaks of aspects of availability, supply, and utilization of healthcare services as being factors in determining access. Barriers to access in the financial, organizational, social, and cultural domains can limit the utilization of services, even in places where they are “available.”
Even if a healthcare facility is physically accessible, what is the quality of care that it offers? Is that care continuously available? While the National (Rural) Health Mission has done much to improve the infrastructure in the Indian Government healthcare system, a 2012 study of six states in India revealed that many of the primary health centers (PHCs) lacked basic infrastructural facilities such as beds, wards, toilets, drinking water facility, clean labor rooms for delivery, and regular electricity.
