ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Corporatisation in Private Hospitals Sector in India

Transformation in the Indian private hospitals sector is examined in Maharashtra, employing qualitative interviews, witness seminars, and desk research. Findings point to significant changes: hospitals viewed as businesses to yield profits; adoption of business strategies to ensure financial viability and returns; changes in not-for-profit and small hospitals; and consequences for institutional and medical practice. Policy shifts towards greater private sector involvement in health, industry advocacy, availability of insurance, and patient expectations drive these changes towards corporatisation, which is not just about the growth of corporate hospitals; it entails structural and behavioural changes across the healthcare sector solely favouring economic goals.

Drug Price Control in India

Price control of life-saving essential medicines is the need of the hour, but the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has allowed a hike of 10% in nearly 800 drugs and devices listed under the National List of Essential Medicines from 1 April 2022 because of the rising input costs. Prices of scheduled drugs are allowed an increase each year acc­ording to the wholesale price index. Input costs are rising primarily because India is heavily dependent on China for drug imports.

Public Health for All

Universalising Healthcare in India: From Care to Coverage edited by Imrana Qadeer, K B Saxena and P M Arathi, Delhi: Aakar Books, 2019; pp 475, `1,495.

National Health Accounts, 2018–19

A deficit in healthcare and its skewed availability across states remain major limitations.

Novel Health Approaches Emerging from the Covid-19 Crisis

Novel public health experiments from Maharashtra in the pandemic times, involving co-production of healthcare, interventionist regulation of private hospital rates and popular initiatives to ensure social accountability of private hospitals, demonstrate significant potentials to advance people-centred health system changes.

Huge Lags in Medical Education

The government continues ignoring the increasing demand for health services and the shortage of doctors.

 

Non-communicable Diseases and Their Macroeconomic Impact in India

Non-communicable diseases now account for two-thirds of the total mortality in India and are projected to account for an estimated 75% of the total mortality by 2030. Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes are the country’s leading causes of death.

Hospitalised Care among Larger States

Though the global spending on health is rising worldwide, people were still paying too much out of their pockets. This article examined the comparative expenditure on hospitalised care in India using three rounds of the National Sample Surveys. As there is low footfall in public facilities, the Government of India needs to take necessary measures to strengthen the public health system.

 

States’ Debt Burden Surges to a 15-year High

Strengthening the pandemic-devastated state finances will help boost both welfare and growth.

 

India’s Government Health Expenditure as the Ratio to GDP

The appropriateness of the criterion that pegs the ratio of public health expenditure to the gross domestic product—which is volatile—needs a re-examination. The targets for allocation and expenditure of financial resources for health need to be based on indicators that can be monitored.

 

COVID-19 and the Everyday Challenges of Indigenous Peoples of Tripura

Although there were some responses from the government and community sociocultural organisations to deal with an unforeseen crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, it brought enormous challenges in the everyday life of indigenous peoples of Tripura. In this article, the everyday challenges faced by the rural indigenous peoples of Tripura during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the immediate response by the government and community sociocultural organisations are unravelled.

 

Economic Impact of COVID-19-induced Lockdown on Rural Households

Through a series of data visualisations, the article attempts to illustrate the economic repercussions of the COVID-19-induced lockdown of 2020 on rural households. It focuses on how consumption, labour and income, healthcare, access to relief programmes and migration were effected by the lockdown in six major states.

 

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