Inside India’s healthcare services

When India became independent of the British rule in 1947 the private health sector was providing only 5-10% of the total patient care. Today it accounts for 82% of outpatient visits, 58% of inpatient expenditure, and 40% of births in institutions.  India has a total of 43,486 private hospitals with 1.18 million beds, 59,264 ICUs, and 29,631 ventilators. On the other hand, there are only 25,778 public hospitals with 713,986 beds, 35,700 ICUs, and 17,850 ventilators. Total private infrastructure accounts for nearly 62% of India’s entire health infrastructure.

There is a profound dichotomy between India’s public and private healthcare services. The public healthcare infrastructure is compounded by out of date hospitals and unexperienced and unmotivated medical personnel. The public hospitals are usually overcrowded and the queues are so long that it became normal for patients to bribe the medical staff in order to shorten the waiting times. The private healthcare services are totally different; the hospitals have access to the latest medical equipment and the medical staff is well trained and motivated to deliver world-class healthcare services to its patients.

India’s ‘five-star’ hospitals take advantage of comparatively low labour costs and have facilities and services comparable to the most advanced hospitals in the developed countries, while continuously growing.