Lessons From Pandemic

Context: Government’s inability to procure adequate oxygen, even before the pandemic, showcases the sorry state of our healthcare system. Post-Covid, India must invest in an NHS-like health model.

Implications of unavailability of oxygen in Indian healthcare system:

• During the pandemic: Contradictory reports by the health ministry tries to absolve the government of all the deaths caused due to lack of oxygen.
  • The health ministry has claimed in Parliament that only Punjab has reported four “suspected” deaths during the second Covid- 19 wave due to lack of oxygen.
  • Instead, the volunteer-run “Oxygen Shortage Deaths” group has documented at least 629 oxygen-related deaths since May 2021 nationwide.
• Before the pandemic: In 2017, 800 children died in Jharkhand of suspected encephalitis. 
  • In 2015, 18 patients died in a Chennai hospital due to power failure after the floods. 
  • In 2014, 13 women died after illegal sterilisation at an overcrowded government health camp in Chhattisgarh. 

Significance of British’s National healthcare Service– like model – 

• Low-cost healthcare: Britain’s legendary health network cures 15 million patients with chronic ailments, at a fraction of the cost spent by the US.
• Funded by the direct tax.
• 5th largest employer in the world, after McDonald's and Walmart; One of every 20 British workers is employed as doctor, nurse, catering and technical personnel.
• Dignity: As true successors of Florence Nightingale, the compassionate nurses after the pandemic have been hailed as superheroes by graffiti artist Banksy.
• Act as a religion for ageing society.

The Sorry State of Indian healthcare:

• Absentee staff: As per a NITI Aayog, in the worst state of Bihar in 2017-18, positions for 60 % of mid-wives, 50 % of staff nurses, 34 % of medical officers and 60 % of specialist doctors were vacant.
• Low budget: Even after the pandemic, India continues to budget less than 1 % of GDP for healthcare, one of the lowest in the world. In contrast, China invests around 3 %, Britain 7 % and the United States 17 % of GDP.
• High out-of-pocket expenditure: 62 % of health expenses in India are paid for by patients themselves — one of the main reasons for families falling into poverty, especially during the pandemic. 

Conclusion: Before the NHS was established, George Orwell, in his 1946 essay How the Poor Die, painted a tragic portrait of state-run hospitals with “a seeming lack of any perception that the patients were human beings”.  Thus, NHS is the way forward.