4. India's medical infrastructure at glance
Health sector in India is responsibility of State and central
government.
In terms of service delivery it is more concerned with the
state.
There are :
1. 5097 hospitals ,
2. 8,70,161 Hospital beds
3. 5,03,900 Doctors
4. 7,37,000 Nurses
5. 162 Medical Colleges
5. Public Urban health system
Super speciality hospitals like AIIMS but they are very limited.
(1500-2000 Beds).
Special Disease Hospitals like Cancer Hospitals and TB hospitals
(500-1000 Beds).
Medical College Hospitals and district hospitals form main public
health system for cities (500 Beds).
Taluka hospitals cover mostly small cities and districts (below50
Beds.)
All the hospitals have inpatient and Out patient department.
Medicines and tests are usually covered at subsidised rates but
district Taluka hospitals may not have all the facilities.
Public health in general is very poor with few exceptions
This is generally due to lack of resources, over burden corruption,
lack of planning and accountability.
6. Private Urban Health System
Privatised health system is much better than public health system.
This is quite expensive as compared to public health system.
The super speciality hospitals usually follow American health
system model and have advance facilities.
The main customers for these is rich and middle income group.
Insurance companies are key source of medical reimbursement for
medical bills.
Both cashless and reimbursement facility available with insurance
companies.
Usually medical insurance coast is covered by employer in the
private sector.
7. Private Urban Health system
Pharmacy , Medical test , inpatient and outpatient are integrated
in single compound.
Medium Size hospitals have average infrastructure and provide
basic health care.
They cater mostly lower income and middle class.
They work on both cash and insurance companies while lot of
them may not be covered by insurance companies.
The facility is not superb but acceptable to some degree for non
critical disease.
Nursing Homes are small private hospitals with limited
infrastructure.
Again cater lower income, middle income group along with rural
population which come to cities for treatment.
Facilities are not that good.
8. Private Urban Health system
Private Clinics work in collaboration with private test houses and
private pharmaceuticals.
Mostly work on direct payments. In some insurance scheme some
basic consultation fees is covered up to some extent.
The number of private physicians is huge but scarcity of good
specialist.
Lot of good doctors also fallow private practise for some portion
of their time but their number is quite small.
