‘Immunisation would go a long way in reducing costs and improving health outcomes’

Even at the start of the century, the quality and outcomes of healthcare in India were significantly lower than most nations of the world. Some progress has been made over the last decade but we still lag behind in some areas. These are fundamentals to the basic health of the nation. It is only a healthy nation that will be able to release its enormous human capital effectively for its betterment.

In the metros today, private and public hospitals see cases of rickets which has long been driven down from the more advanced countries in the world. Basic calcium deficiencies need to be altered alongwith protein and calorie deficiencies. The Government of India has to implement the right delivery mechanism for food to be distributed at the grassroot level, it needs to be stringently monitored and its disruption should be linked to harsh punishment.

Utilisation of technology can also create awareness on what common food that is available in the village that may be rich in proteins and minerals that may be eaten to avoid diseases like rickets. Calcium is only one of the areas of deficiency, anaemia is far more common. Thus these common disorders need to be tackled on war footing.

It is also necessary to ensure that basic medicines, including antihelmenthic medications, are available at the primary health centres. While availability is just one part of the problem, educating the masses is another ball game completely. To that end, the Ministry of Health and Information Technology must ensure the use of technology to create programmes that would spread the awareness on basic hygiene – from washing hands prior to eating meals, to understanding the benefits of regular de-worming. Thus, while Government has infrastructure at the rural level it needs to be well utilised so that the vast majority of communicable diseases as well as the issue of malnutrition is addressed.

It is important for the government to also monitor the indiscriminate use of medicines, especially antibiotics, in the metros. Not every fever mandates the use of antibiotics. Also, indiscriminate use of certain types and combinations can only help push the cost of healthcare as newer and resistant bugs are discovered which would respond only to a combination of three or four antibiotics together.

It is important that childhood immunisation programmes are implemented very strictly. India has emerged as polio free, if this can be done then there is no reason why other communicable diseases cannot be eradicated. But, it underscores the need for implementation of the comprehensive immunisation programme that the Government already has.

Thus while many good programmes have been launched by the Government of India, its implementation has been exceedingly poor (barring a few examples as one mentioned before). The infrastructure exists but the methodology is still weak and needs to be extensively shored up. Immunisation is important for prevention of communicable diseases. While it cannot be the panacea for prevention of these diseases it can reduce the severity of the disease and complications which again would go a long way in reducing costs and improving health outcomes. There have been improvements but much more needs to be done in the realm of preventive medicine.

Emerging economies such as Brazil and China have far lower infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate when compared with world average. The government’s first and foremost job is to ensure that India’s infant and maternal mortality rates are lower than the world’s average. This itself will have a telling effect on human capital. If this is achieved then our huge population can be utilised as the country’s strength. It will enable the country to move ahead in its growth and secure its future.

– Dr Sujit Chatterjee, Chief Executive Officer, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital