State-Central Healthcare Policy Tussle Leaves India’s Healthtech Future In Precarious Position

State-Central Healthcare Policy Tussle Leaves India’s Healthtech Future In Precarious Position

SUMMARY

Multiple states have not been able to implement many of the healthcare policies, as funds are not released in a timely manner by the centre, which results in poor implementation and public healthcare gaps

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which not only exposed healthcare deficiencies at every level, but also laid bare the stagnant public healthcare spending and poor implementation of policies by states

Has India got its healthcare policies and priorities wrong, and what would it take to build the infrastructure parallelly with the government with increased participation from startups?

India's healthtech startups were growing rapidly even before the pandemic, but Covid-19 has ushered in a new age. This series dives into the trends, startups business models emerging in the wake of Covid-19.“In India, if you see, people don’t take their health as seriously as they do other things in their lives. People plan for the house, their marriages… they plan for everything, even for the honeymoon, but they hardly plan for health, which is quite ironic,” explains Dr. Amit Jotwani, cofounder and CMO of virtual cancer care platform Onco.“Spending around 1% of the GDP on healthcare, India is in the bottom rung of the ladder across the world. The developed countries, especially the US, spend around 10% of GDP on healthcare. Over the next few years, India needs an investment of at least $60-70 Bn in order to reach the average levels of healthcare infrastructure, leave aside the best.”- Rahul Agarwal, Quadria Capital“The Government of India has acknowledged the need and initiated the formulation of rules related to home healthcare. By bringing these services and innovations under the ambit of health insurance will be further instrumental in the wider adoption of such practices and improvement in the overall healthcare scenario in the country.” — Portea’s Meena GaneshAnother member Dr. PS Deshmukh had then responded, “The Health Ministry, Sir, is not the last word here.”Public health is a state matter; however, public interest has been in the union list. Hospitals fall under state list, the medical education is however guided and controlled by the Centre. In such a situation a medical college which is essentially a hospital thus has to be accountable to both central as well as state machinery. This also opens room for dual corruption and mismanagement.“Let’s take Covid-19 preparations for instance. While the Centre had rightly imposed a nationwide lockdown in the public interest, the lack of coordination among states and preparation at the state level has backfired at many levels. This could have been avoided if healthcare were in the concurrent list,” the Niti Aayog official added.1mg’s Tandon argued, “While we have done better than most of the countries the challenge has been in scaling up the available solutions. For instance, back in 2012, China had started the concept of internet hospitals. So, when Covid-19 happened China had already a strong home healthcare system in place which helped immensely in lockdown and self-quarantine.”It’s ironic that pharma stores can sell any medicine without seeing a prescription. No records are kept and that’s okay. But data-driven epharma companies that don’t allow consumers to buy without prescriptions and keep a record of every transaction that anyone can audit have to face uncertainty in terms of policy and regulations.

No results were found for "".
  • «
  • 1
  • »
modal lock

Continue Reading With A Free Inc42 Account

Get the most out of your Inc42 experience by creating a free account. Enjoy personalized recommendations, ad-lite browsing, and access to our exclusive newsletters.