Saturday, November 25, 2006

Petition by Dr. Adhiraj Joglekar


India ranks 127 amongst 177 countries with regards to the Human Development Index. India spends just over 1% of it's total GDP on Health. This is equal to Rupees 160 (just over 3 Euro's) per head per anum. India's low health spending means India ranks an abysmal 171 out of 175 according to 2004 UNDP report.

Union health secretary J V R Prasad Rao explains what this skewed funding pattern means for India’s people: “With the funding so low, we can either fund doctors or get medicines or provide support services. We cannot take care of all this.”

80% of the population lives in rural areas, but 80% of health provision is urban. Over 85% of health provision is through private enterprise.

To make matters worse - immoral and unethical practices are a norm within the health sector. Unfortunately for a private medical practioner, earning a decent living (comparable to otherprofessionals from IT / MBA sector) is impossible without being a part of such corruption. The latter includes giving kick-backs to referring colleagues. Often this leads to quick & dirty ways of earning money i.e. 'sham' or 'unwanted' procedures. The other option is to consider working in public hospitals where you could get paid just as much as in a call-centre. In contrast salaries of those working in BPOs / software industry are 2-3 times higher.

The Medical Council of India currently functions only as a registration body. Once registered the MCI has no idea about the whereabouts of a doctor. Further it has no teeth and is unable to curb curruption and unethical practices including those carried out by quacks.
Petition:
We, the undersigned, agree and request the Health Minister of India to implement the following:

1) The Indian Health Expenditure should increase several fold in the coming years. Mr Chidambaram raised it by 22% in 2006, but we.....

To read more and sign, see the petition

1 comment:

viagra online said...

The Human Development is a great help to know how live the people in everycountry.
I think that India should o flat out and give more advantages to the people.