Urban Health in India – Challenges & Solutions

In the recent decades, India is becoming rapidly urbanized. As a result, there is a tremendous need and demand for healthcare services, particularly among the growing urban population. The existing health system in India allows good scope for improving national health indices and achieving universal health coverage. However, the high-concentration urban locality demands a considerably large number of healthcare providers and there arises the need for easy access to healthcare services for the growing population. This is, indeed, becoming a significant challenge for the country as it has to cater to the healthcare needs of the increasing urban population and to ease things on the way, efforts and solutions are proposed to tackle the challenges and strengthen the urban healthcare systems.

Urban Health:

The era of globalization and liberalization has migrated the population towards the urban centers, as a result, consuming a larger part of the urban resources and leaving the unorganized slum areas polluted with miserable living conditions. In effect, the health of the urban poor is relapsing because of the poor sanitary conditions that lead to the outbreak of many communicable diseases. Moreover, the lack of quality public health systems combined with poor access to public healthcare services is further widening the health problem in the urban areas. Particularly, the urban poor is worse off than the middle and high-income groups in the urban sector, owing to their inability to incur the cost of healthcare and inaccessibility to public health.

On the other side, the urbanization and industrialization have led to high concentrations of suspended particulates in the urban regions, adversely affecting human health, and provoking a wide range of diseases and exacerbating health conditions. In addition to that, there is a spread of unhealthy lifestyle among the affluent sections of the urban population, raising the risk of chronic, non-communicable diseases. As a result, the urban population suffers from a significantly higher burden of communicable and non-communicable disease risk factors than the rural sector even though there are quite advanced healthcare services. In fact, these increasing risk of diseases has supported the growth of highly advanced and specialized medical treatments and healthcare services in the urban sector for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and adverse medical conditions.

It is generally perceived that there are better health facilities and public healthcare services available for the urban residents. However, India, as of now, still lacks access to quality public healthcare services, and the health system in urban regions is severely limited due to the inadequacy of the system to cater to the needs of the larger population. There is a lack of adequate economic and human resources in the public healthcare sector, leading to restrictions on healthcare facilities and delivery. Hence, the urban healthcare sector in India needs immediate attention to meet the challenges of accessibility, quality, and cost of healthcare in urban areas and come up with solutions that counteract the prevailing healthcare issues.

Inaccessible Public Health System:

The public healthcare delivery system in the urban areas, targeted towards the poor, has so far been sporadic, limited in its reach, and far from adequate for the existing needs. Even though there is a higher number of healthcare professionals in urban areas compared to rural areas, the lack of public health systems and its accessibility has made urban health far more challenging for many, especially the urban poor who look out for the public health system as their primary healthcare service.

Lack of Resources:

Despite the rapid growth in the economy, India is spending meager or inadequate resources on its healthcare needs. The overall public healthcare expenditure in India is considered frugal when compared to the global countries, as India spends only 1 percent of its total GDP on public health. It is expected that India must spend some substantial funds in public healthcare, especially to reduce the levels of child and maternal mortality rates in both urban and rural areas and reach the globally acceptable levels. For this, the government has to raise funds and resources in numerous ways by reallocating subsidies and optimizing the healthcare resources for the benefit of the public health in both urban and rural areas.

Inadequate Infrastructure:

The existing health infrastructure in the country is not sufficient to meet the urban health needs. To increase the quality of healthcare services and delivery, the quality of health infrastructure has to be raised to the global standards. To make it happen, both central and the state governments have to work together to allocate funds for expansion and make sure that the understaffed and underfinanced public healthcare centers in the country are revamped at par with the private hospitals.

Recognizing the Importance of Skills:

Apart from infrastructure limitations, there is also a lack of skilled and well-learned medical professionals in the country, which is turning out to be a big roadblock for the healthcare system. As such, government involvement in dedicating resources for continuing education and training can bring considerable improvements to the scenario. Indeed, quality healthcare education aids in developing the skillsets of the graduates and thus can help the sector utilize the productive and skilled professionals.

Apart from government measures to produce skilled professionals, private institutions play a vital role in developing well-trained and efficient healthcare professionals to take up the responsibilities and meet the rising demands. IIHMR, one of the reputed healthcare management and research institutions in India, has been contributing substantially to the field of health management. The institution offers flagship programs, integrating the concepts of urban/rural health and management, to prepare skilled professionals for the healthcare sector. IIHMR aims at providing quality education and training to the students so that they can cater to the growing needs of the country by excelling in the field of health management. To contribute to the health system, IIHMR has been consistently striving to establish a new paradigm in healthcare management, focusing on the areas of strategic management, research, and development to prepare students for the modern era of healthcare application and management.

Overall, the key challenges faced by the Indian urban healthcare sector have to be sorted out efficiently by boosting the infrastructure development, availing funds allocations, and increasing government participation to strengthen the urban healthcare systems and to achieve universal health coverage.

International Institute of Health Management Research
Top Health Institute Near Dwarka
Plot No. 3, Sector 18A, Phase- II, Dwarka, New Delhi- 110075
Phone: 91-011-30418900
Mobile Number: 91-9313346882 , 9555249998
Fax: 011-30418909
http://delhi.iihmr.org