Improving Access to Healthcare in India

The major source of healthcare for the majority of the one billion plus population in India are the government run hospitals and clinics. Anybody who has been to these facilities knows that these facilities lack the infrastructure to meet the needs of this population. In addition poverty, illiteracy and lack of awareness of services available inhibit people from accessing the bare minimum benefits that these government run hospitals offer. The government spends crores of rupees to run these facilities even though there is little to no benefit in terms of quality of healthcare.
So what is the solution to address this lack of access to basic healthcare? The government needs to think about opening the government run hospitals to the private industry. Though this may seem like a radical idea at first glance, but if done right it would be a win-win solution for the government as well as the private industry. The government run hospitals have buildings available which need investment to bring them up to standard. The private sector would be able to provide this investments. In return the private sectors would be running the hospitals and collecting a portion of the revenue generated from seeing the patients.
One would argue that most of the patients seen in these hospitals are poor and cannot pay for the services. This is where the health insurance for all who cannot afford healthcare would come in handy. For a small premium or downpayment, most of the services would be covered. The government would cover the rest of the costs which they do anyways right now. Thus by leasing out these facilities, the government saves on the administrative costs associated with running these hospitals.
In addition the government must develop uniform quality standards for delivery of care and hold the private sector accountable for delivering the services according to these standards. In addition investment must be made in education and training of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare worker.
Taking these steps would definitely help in providing access to healthcare to the masses.