How relevant is NHS in India?

The NHS in UK is a government funded public service health care system. They were established together in 1948 as one of the major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, free at the point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, apart from dental treatment and optical care. The NHS in UK is increasingly outsourcing its activity to the private sector and inviting private sector into the NHS. However, the NHS in its new wisdom may be selecting to go to India to provide services as a private provider. This absolutely contradicts with the actual motive of NHS in the United Kingdom. This nature of NHS seems to be totally and absolutely contradictory. All this aside the question arises that can India handle a system like NHS if it becomes available in India by the public sector itself. The answer to this question is two fold. The large population of India acts as a major obstacle in the implementation of a programme like the NHS. Our democracy has always and often in implementing programmes that could implement large scale upliftment of the people who are unable to attain these facilities such as medical care. But the problem of disconnection between the different areas of our country also acts as a hurdle for the availability of better health facilities. The principles of care, content of education, models of care delivery that are needed in India are different. India is perhaps already suffering from a techno-centric, finance driven, western oriented, urban focused, doctor obsessed health care system. This leads irreconcilable differences between segments of the population, the commercial model of health care delivery does not seem to have delivered population wide improvement in health care outcomes in India (or for that matter in the USA). India specific, India centric, models based on local needs and local data need to be developed. NHS in the United Kingdom provides medical healthcare services all over their country at more or less an equivalent rate. As much as I appreciate equality , this type of system could not be successful until the rates charged are very low for BPL population of our country. Then comes the question of impending introduction of NHS into India as a private medical services provider. The reason for this decision by NHS is not difficult to fathom. India is a growing market in general, health care is a really high growth market; there is a clear need for more high quality providers. The non-commercial UK NHS wants to take commercial advantage of these factors to make money for UK. It is nothing else apart from money making. Money making in itself is not such a bad thing, only to couch it in the language of health care improvement, helping populations, transferring expertise, spreading knowledge and other obviously superficial euphemisms reflects poor intentions. So here comes the question of advancement but in terms of poor ethical values. NHS do not really believe in the worldwide popular phenomenon of ‘doctors without borders’. For it, India is pure market for profit making. I wonder if the NHS would still go to India if it was required to provide 72% of its Indian services in rural India (that is the percentage of the population that lives in rural India) to the same standard and more or less the same price that they provide in urban India? The answer to this question is simple yet very difficult. This private company may take steps but would be doomed if they are unable to find a solution of this income gap that hangs over Indian economy as a dark cloud. So the question about how NHS will treat the rich and poor of India equally. My sincere wish is that this system should be given freedom but under the strict supervision of our government so that our weaker sections are not ignored as they always been. More Indian doctor should become a part of NHS and should provide services that might render some help to the people who are in dire need of it. I would like if NHS doesn’t turn into another Swaach Bharat Abhiyan or any other scheme which gave expectations but then crashed them brutally after but the youth is still ignited and we hope in due time all these schemes would acquire the results that they had wanted from the start