Healthcare in post-COVID India: A call for a decentralized healthcare system.

Pramesh, C S; Seshadri, D V R; Fernandez, Evita; Rao, Gullapalli N; Dutta, Manisha; Mohan, Pavitra; Equitable Healthcare Access Consortium · J Family Med Prim Care · 2021

other · Level V

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Abstract

Over the years, healthcare system in India has been largely centralized, expensive and impersonal. In a country where expenditure on healthcare is low, most healthcare expenditure is out-of-pocket and where most of the population continue to live in rural areas or in urban fringes, such a care is inaccessible, unresponsive and unaffordable. COVID pandemic exposed these realities further. Based on experiences of directly managing health services during COVID-19 pandemic in different settings and across different levels, authors of this paper argue for a decentralized, distributed and responsive health systems for India, that is likely to be more effective and sustainable in normal times, and in times of crisis.