Health is a global issue which makes public health a fundamental component of a nation’s governance. Countries differ on health matters as far as national health systems are concerned. For instance, the way countries in the developed world approach and solve public health issues differs, to a significant extent, to how developing nations address the same issues. The structuring of the national health systems is one source of the differences. Although an enormous amount of studies demonstrates the variedness of national health systems, not much of these investigations give third world countries the attention deserved. As such, the analysis explores healthcare in India to get a picture of how some developing nations handle public health issues.
Healthcare System in India
India’s national health system can be described as a vast healthcare system because of how it is structured. The country incorporates many differences between quality in care delivery services between public and private health care, and urban and rural settings. Public health infrastructure of India comprises of sub-centres, primary health centers, community health centers, and first referral units all working together to tackle some of the major health issues affecting the country. The system plays a significant role in the delivery of services and the outcomes of different interventions. The major healthcare issues that the country addresses include child mortality, pollution, and cardiovascular diseases.
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Child Mortality
In spite of the improvement in the country’s healthcare system, India is faced with a problem of high child mortality rate. Healthcare professionals view this as a product of inequality in child health. According to Pappachan and Choonara (2017), factors contributing to the problem include poverty, poor sanitation, and malnutrition. The study observes that close to 40 percent of India’s children are stunted or malnourished. In addition to this, some parts of the country, especially rural settings, have the poor provision of health where families have difficulty accessing healthcare. Currently, the central government, in collaboration with local governments and other stakeholders in the healthcare sector, focus on curbing the problem by eliminating its causes – poverty, malnutrition, and poor sanitation.
The efforts the healthcare sector center on healthcare provision, poverty and malnutrition, maternal health, empowering women, and promoting breastfeeding. With only 36 percent of the nation’s population having access to sanitation facilities, Pappachan and Choonara (2017) note that the country has realized the significance of improving sanitation to its citizen’s health. India is also on a mission to expand its healthcare coverage by introducing hospitals and centers in various parts of the country where there is limited care accessibility. India’s healthcare professionals also understand that parents’ health is an important predicting factor for children’s health. As such, they focus on improving maternal health, empowering women on health issues and educating them on the importance of breastfeeding.
Pollution
India is one of the fastest rising economies which means it is transforming into an industrialized economy at a faster rate. The implication of industrialization manifests into major environmental problems like destruction of forests and degradation of resources. The country is currently battling significant environmental issues like pollution (water, air, land, and noise). In 2009, India was ranked the largest emitter of greenhouse gas surpassing both the United States and China. Water pollution is rampant; factories freely discharge untreated sewage into the country’s water bodies, thus resulting in major waterborne diseases among populations depending on such waters. India currently combats the problem from a legal point of view as opposed to healthcare frameworks. For instance, some of the measures the country has taken into implementing environmental laws that strongly prohibit unethical practices such as pollution. Some of these laws include Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, The National Green Tribunal Act, and Environment Protection Act. The enforcement of these sets of regulations has helped reduce health complications arising from pollution.
Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular disease refers to a condition involving blockage or narrowing of blood vessels thus leading to complications such as angina, heart attack, or stroke among others. In their analysis, Prabhakaran, Jeemon, and Roy (2016) discover that cardiovascular diseases have grown to become the single most leading cause of mortality in India. The problem is responsible for more than 25 percent deaths in India; institutions like a center for diseases control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that cardiovascular diseases contribute to the death rate of 272 per 100,000 populations, surpassing the global average of 235 per 100,000 populations. The seriousness of the problem has compelled the government to devise measures to counter the epidemic through various strategies. Some of the approaches used include reinforcement of healthcare systems, applying evidence-based policies, and emphasis on prevention, early detection, and treatment.
Social Issues Affecting Implementation of Interventions
Like most developing economies, India faces a diverse range of social issues that are constantly affecting the successful implementation of proposed public health issues such as the ones covered above. Poverty and illiteracy are the leading social issues as suggested by Mohandas Mallah et al. (2014). Health and poverty have a two-way relationship in the sense that poverty results in increased susceptibility of people contracting illnesses and sickness; on the other hand, affects productivity levels of people thus leading to poverty. Poverty, as earlier observed, is one of the leading cause of child mortality. Also, it affects the affordability of quality healthcare among the majority of India’s population. On the issue of illiteracy, India possesses one of the largest population of illiterate people in the world. The problem comes with complex dimensions attached to it like disparities in income, gender, state, and health. Because of illiteracy, many people are not aware of public health issues and personal initiatives to adopt to prevent some of these issues.
Barriers to Achievement of Health Objectives
Most of the barriers to the accomplishment of public health issues set by the nation’s healthcare system stem mostly from its existing social problems, that is, poverty and illiteracy. Some of these barriers include awareness (or lack of it) and health care accessibility (or lack of it) as Arvind Kasthuri (2018) points out. The article unravels one of the appalling facts regarding the extent of knowledge of health issues and their management. For instance, only 20.3 percent of participants of the study were aware of major illnesses, their causes, and their prevention. In the world of health care, accessibility is a term used to describe the opportunity or right to benefit from or use health care. Looking at the connectedness of healthcare in urban and rural areas, the question of the level of access to quality care services among Indians is inevitable. Arvind Kasthuri (2018) observes that only 5 percent of Indians were able to access healthcare facilities within a 5-kilometer radius. The extent of these challenges to the accomplishment of healthcare goals is alarming which calls for measures to address them.
The solution to the challenge of lack of awareness is well-planned educational campaigns aiming at individuals and groups across the entire country. The primary objective of the awareness campaigns would be to educate people on individual, groups, and societal levels on various public health issues, the extent of their prevalence and healthy practices to adopt for preventative purposes. Educational campaigns can be held through various platforms online and off web platforms. For example, media houses, the internet, print media, and meetings are some of the strategies to use. Solving the issue of accessibility is rather a complex and costly undertaking because it involves strategically setting up hospitals at locations for ease of access. However, with inventions such as mobile care, the extent of challenge can be reduced to a significant level. This should involve acquiring mobile clinics that easily move around different locations depending on the geographic prevalence of a public health issue.
Leadership and Overcoming Barriers
Effective leadership in the healthcare sector has been linked to a wide range of functions including that of driving the industry to its intended future by successfully overcoming barriers. A good leader is expected to transform industry such as India’s to a status characterized by timely care delivery, reforms, efficiency, affordability, accessibility, and effectiveness. For this to happen, however, the leader must be transformational and possesses qualities that strive to bring change. Leadership, in this case, can be used to create a culture that welcomes and promotes positive change by influencing people to take on opportunities regardless of the risks involved. India’s national healthcare system needs a leader who works closely with various teams and actors to identify the need for change, create a vision to guide change through inspiration, and execute change through a committed group of individuals.
References
Mallath, M. K., Taylor, D. G., Badwe, R. A., Rath, G. K., Shanta, V., Pramesh, C. S., ... & Kapoor, S. (2014). The growing burden of cancer in India: epidemiology and social context. The Lancet Oncology , 15 (6), e205-e212.
Kasthuri, A. (2018). Challenges to healthcare in India-The five A's. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine , 43 (3), 141.
Pappachan, B., & Choonara, I. (2017). Inequalities in child health in India. BMJ pediatrics open , 1 (1).
Prabhakaran, D., Jeemon, P., & Roy, A. (2016). Cardiovascular diseases in India: current epidemiology and future directions. Circulation , 133 (16), 1605-1620.
