-The Indian Express India’s healthcare debate should go back to the 40-year-old declaration that accords centrality to the local medical worker. India’s healthcare crisis has evoked a policy debate with arguments being made in favour of and against the public and private sector. S.N. Mohanty (‘Fixing healthcare’, IE, November 11) summarises the arguments of both sides very well. He concludes that there is a need to “design the public health system around...

-Down to Earth Can we not go from being poor but unhealthy to being rich and healthy? Why should we inherit diseases that can be junked? In June 2017, British medical journal Lancet published a review of the prevalence of diabetes in 15 states of India. This study by a group of medical practitioners, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has worrying numbers. It finds that while some...

-Livemint.com A 2014 NSSO report shows that the majority of Indians prefer to consult private practitioners rather than public hospitals and those who do visit public hospitals often do so out of compulsion First it was Gorakhpur. Now it is Farrukhabad. The death toll in Uttar Pradesh’s government hospitals—from what appear to be preventable causes—has been mounting over the past month. Similar incidents have been reported from other states, pointing to the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Indian government is mulling monetary incentives to private doctors who provide correct treatment to patients with tuberculosis and financial and nutritional support to patients under new strategies to eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2025. The Union health ministry's "national strategic plan for tuberculosis elimination 2017-2025" also seeks to enhance investments in diagnostic tools and treatment to help cut the country's new TB cases from...

-The Hindu The primary health-care system in India, intended to enable affordable health care, has not delivered on its promise. Rural, public health facilities are unable to attract, retain and ensure the regular presence of trained medical professionals. Health centres and hospitals in the public sector have proliferated but they are distributed inequitably. India may have one government hospital bed for every 1,833 people, but the reality is that while in...