It is important to know about the disease, but it is equally or more important to know about your neighbourhood hospital.
Despite efforts to develop a robust healthcare system after the Covid-19 pandemic taught some hard lessons, many small cities continue to grapple with shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. Scarcity of skilled healthcare professionals, coupled with absence of advanced technology and medical equipment in tier-II and tier-III cities, particularly in rural areas, has made it challenging for patients to access healthcare locally, forcing them to travel to big cities in the hope of quality treatment.
Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta, founder of Health Parliament, a platform that brings together healthcare stakeholders and policymakers, had an unusual visitor recently. The visitor was a cancer patient from Mau district of Uttar Pradesh who called on him with the hope of getting treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. “I asked him why did he come to Delhi instead of going to BHU Cancer Hospital in Varanasi?” said Gupta. The patient said he travelled all the way with the hope of getting better.
The perception of getting the best healthcare services in metro cities like Delhi is another reason why people are unwilling to stay back in tier-II and tier-III cities for treatment, explained Dr Gupta. Days later, he met the father of a four-year-old girl from Varanasi who wanted to bring his daughter to AIIMS for an immediate surgery for thyroid.
“I got two requests within a week asking for treatment at AIIMS. People think it is the only place to get the best treatment. They are not aware of the healthcare facilities that are available near them,” he said.
The doctor-population ratio and lack of enough facilities also lead to inaccessible healthcare services in smaller cities. This also happens because doctors are reluctant to work in areas where adequate resources are not available.
“There is lack of a proper working environment, infrastructure, equipment and medication, human resource support, and opportunities for research and travel which ultimately compels them to leave,” points out Vikram Thaploo, CEO of Apollo Telehealth.
While increasing the number of healthcare professionals, building necessary infrastructure, enhancing healthcare education, encouraging public-private partnerships and empowering local healthcare providers are a few solutions, experts feel, telemedicine is another quick way for people to avail hassle-free healthcare services today.
Telemedicine has the potential to benefit people living in tier-II and tier-III cities in India by providing access to medical expertise that may not be available locally, suggests Thaploo. “Through telemedicine, patients in remote areas can receive consultations, diagnoses and treatment from doctors located in other regions as well, without needing to travel long distances,” he says.
However, experts feel technological solutions may not be the answer and more needs to be done to ramp up the neighbourhood hospitals and clinics, which remain centre stage to both public and private healthcare system.
