‘Healthcare needs to be considered as an Industry’
Magna Carta for healthcare
The benefits of modern medicine has still not penetrated the social periphery of our vast country. The glaring contrasts in the state of health between the rural and urban areas and between the rich and the poor can be labelled as gross social injustice. The new prime minister has to wipe out the inequalities in the distribution of health resources and services and aim towards attaining the millennium development goals. Healthcare is to be regarded by the new government as an essential component of socio-economic development. The aim should be to provide a level of health for all Indians that will permit all people to lead a socially and economically productive life. It must be understood by the new government that that healthcare is a social science and politics is healthcare on a large scale!! Hence, socialisation of healthcare is the way forward. Health is not mainly an issue of doctors, social services and hospitals; it is an issue of social justice.
The new government should have a new philosophy of health which should be reflected in its healthcare policy, as stated under-
- Health is a fundamental human right
- Health is the essence of productive life and not the result of ever increasing expenditure on medical care
- Health is intersectoral
- Health is an integral part of development
- Health is central to the concept of quality of life
- Health involves individuals, state and international responsibility
- Health and its maintenance is a major social investment
- Health is a worldwide social goal
– Dr Rajeev Boudhankar, Vice President, Kohinoor Hospitals
