Though our country is in the path of development in the infrastructure, science, technology and health sectors, the Study conducted by Lancet shows we have to put more emphasis on our health sector. Though the study says India has seen improvements since 1990, we have a lot to go. The index for the Lancet study to measure the quality and accessibility of healthcare had been prepared based on 32 causes of death which should be preventable with effective medical care. Each of the 195 countries and territories assessed was given a score between 0-100. India is ranked 145 among 195 countries and is behind the neighbouring countries like China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, says the study.
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India has seen an improvement from the score of 24.7 in 1990 to 41.2 in 2016. The study stated that although India’s improvements on the healthcare access and quality HAQ index had hastened from 2000 to 2016, the gap between country’s highest and lowest scores widened(23 4-point difference in 1990, and 30 8-point difference in 2016). The study said that Goa and Kerala had the highest scores in 2016, each exceeding 60 points. The study also said that Assam and Uttar Pradesh had the lowest each below 40. As per the statistics in the study, India lagged behind China(48), Srilanka(71), Bangladesh(133), and Bhutan(134) and also we overtook Nepal(149), Pakistan(154) and Afghanistan(191).
The five countries with the highest levels of healthcare access and quality(2016)
*Iceland(97.1 points)
*Norway(96.6)
*Netherlands(96.1)
*Luxembourg(96.0)
*Finland and Australia(95.9)
The five countries with the lowest levels of healthcare access and quality(2016)
*Central African Republic(18.6)
*Somalia(19.0)
*Guinea-Bissau(23.4)
*Chad(25.$)
*Afghanistan(25.9)
India’s poor performance can be attributed to the problems in tackling cases of tuberculosis, rheumatic heart diseases, Ischaemic heart diseases, stroke, testicular cancer, colon cancer and chronic kidney disease among others. The report said that subnational inequalities had been particularly pronounced in China and India, although high-income countries, including England and the US, also had seen considerable local gaps in the performance. Large disparities in subnational levels of personal health care access and quality had emerged for several countries, especially China and India, said the report.
The report further added that those results emphasised the urgent need to improve both access to and quality of healthcare across service areas and for all populations, or otherwise health systems could face widening gaps between the health services they provide and the disease burden experienced by local communities.
It is for the first time that a study also analysed health care access and quality between regions within seven countries: Brazil, China, England, India, Japan, Mexico, and the US. The study reported that China and India had the widest disparities in healthcare access and quality with 43.5 and 30.8 point difference, respectively. Japan had the narrowest differences with 4.8 points.
The global average healthcare access and quality score were 54.4 in 2016, which had been an increase from 42.4 points in 2000, the report said.
Disparities between countries remained similar in 2016 and 2000, with a 78.5 point gap between the best and worst performing countries in 2016 (18.6 in the Central African Republic and 97.1 in Iceland), compared with 79.3 points in 2000 (13.5 in Somalia and 92.8 in Iceland).
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