Published on: May 30, 2018

(Photo by Ruth Fremson)

India’s healthcare is among the most unsatisfactory in the world – 145th among 195 countries – both in terms of quality and accessibility of health care, behind most of our neighbors like China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, according to a study published in the Lancet, Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

The five countries that topped the list are Iceland (scoring 97.1), Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Finland and Australia. India’s score is an abysmal 41.2. in particular, India is reported to have done poorly in the areas of tuberculosis, rheumatic heart disease, ischemic heart disease, stroke, testicular and colon cancers and chronic renal disease.

On the positive side, India’s score improved from 24.7 in 1990 to 41.2 in 2016. But at the same time, the inequities have grown too, with a widening gap between the highest and lowest scores. Goa and Kerala do the best with more than 60 points, while Assam and UP are at the lowest, each below 40.

When we reflect on the Economist’s Quality of Death index, it is obvious that the quality of end-of-life care, comparatively, is a lot worse than general healthcare in India – at 167th place out of 180 countries.

Long Way to go!

One response to “India’s healthcare is among the most unsatisfactory in the world: study”

  1. Khemraj sonwani says:

    True