Healthcare Sector in India: How are we Performing?

Healthcare is one the fastest growing service sector in India. The healthcare sector is expanding rapidly as an industry. It comprises of hospital services, diagnostic services, diagnostic products, medical technology, clinical trial services and clinical research organizations. The expenditure by public sector on healthcare is very low, consequently, it places high burden on patients and families. According to the report of PricewaterhouseCooper, in 2014, private spending on health in India was more than double than the government expenditure. Private healthcare companies are growing fast in terms of owning and managing hospitals because government is not spending enough money on building and maintaining facilities. More than 70 percent spells of ailment were treated in private sector. In treating the in-patients, private hospitals dominate both in rural and urban areas, therefore, out-of-pocket expenditure in India is very high. Many patients, especially those living in rural and semi-urban areas are still receiving services from unqualified practitioners. The industry needs an additional 1.54 million doctors and 2.4 million nurses to match the global average. The Indian government has accorded priority to healthcare in its budget since 2014-15 and works tirelessly to transform the health sector for providing quality and affordable healthcare to middle class, neo-middleclass and poor. The objective of this paper is to present the current status of healthcare and to identify problems and challenges of healthcare sector in India.