State dependent on private entities
BENGALURU :Private players rule the healthcare sector in India, but are the most dominant across urban K ar nat aka, show government statistics. People in rural Karnataka, too, largely depend on private healthcare.
The private sector is resisting K ar nat aka government’ s move to regulate it through a bill and served a reminder of its dominance with a shutdown of facilities in Bengaluru on Thursday.
The government has not been able to keep pace in building public healthcare capacity, say doctors opposing the proposed Karnataka Private Medical Establishments( Amendment) Bill.
“The state government is making the private sector do the work it was supposed to do,” said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, chairman of Manipal Hospital. His assertion on Karnataka’s dependence on private healthcare is borne out by a report of the National Sample Survey, released in 2015.
According to it ,81.7% of urban residents received treatment at private facilities, the highest in the country. The figure for rural K ar nat aka was 73.2%, the fourth highest, after Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
The report also noted that around 42% of people in Karnataka borrowed money to pay for medical expenses. This is the third highest in the country after And hr a Pradesh and Te lang ana.
Karnataka has 49,454 government hospital beds, or eight for every 10,000 people, according to National Health Profile 2017 report by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI).
This is below the World Health Organisation’ sr eco mm ended 18 per 10,000, but above the national average of around five.
Expertspin theblame on Karnataka’s “low expenditure” on public healthcare.
According to the CBHI data, Karnataka spent 0.7% of gross state domestic product on the healthcare sector, the third lowest in the country after Maharashtra and Haryana, and lower
than the national average of 1.1%.
Incident ally, K ar nat aka has 40 private medical colleges, highest in the country, followed by Maharashtra (29) and Tamil Na du (26).
“The burgeoning private healthcare sector in Karnataka has become predatory,” alleged Akhila Vasan, an activist with the K ar nat aka Jan a a rog ya Ch aluvali, a public healthcare advocacy group.
E Premdas Pinto, director, research and advocacy, Centre for Health and Social Justice, said public healthcare woes aided the growth of private sector. “This situation did not come overnight. The health policy in the state, and the country as a whole, has been to privilege the private sector.”