Why private sector calls the shots in K’taka healthcare

: Private players rule the healthcare sector in India, but are the most dominant across urban Karnataka, show government statistics. People in rural Karnataka, too, largely depend on private healthcare.

The private sector is resisting Karnataka 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 Karnataka 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 Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

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’s recommended 18 per 10,000, but above the national average of around five.

Experts pin the blame 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%.

Incidentally, Karnataka has 40 private medical colleges, highest in the country, followed by Maharashtra (29) and Tamil Nadu (26).

E Premdas Pinto, of Centre for Health and Social Justice, said public healthcare woes aided the growth of the private sector.

BENGALURU

HT PHOTO The HC asked the government and the Indian Medical Association to reach a consensus, while reminding the doctors of their ‘duty towards the society’ in a bid to persuade them to call off the strike.