The right to health requires a shift towards preventive care, empathy from professionals, and empowering patients with information.
-Dr Shirish Ghadi
The world of 26-year-old Sushma, a mother of two young children, shattered when she found her husband Hanumant’s lifeless body in their farm’s well. Just a day prior, he received a life altering diagnosis – cancer. The fear of the physical, emotional, and financial burden drove him to take his own life. This tragedy highlights the importance of a holistic and empathic approach to healthcare, ensuring the right to health for everyone.
This year’s World Health Day theme – ‘my health, my right’ resonates deeply with Sushma’s tragedy. It emphasizes the fundamental right of everyone, everywhere, to access quality healthcare, education, and information.
India, like many countries, recognizes healthcare as a fundamental right enshrined in its constitution. Despite initiatives like the Ayushman Bharat and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY) offering health insurance and primary healthcare to help reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, thus ensuring accessibility and affordability of health services, Hanumant’s case exposes critical gaps. For instance, he might not have been aware of population-based screening programs or PMJAY coverage. Moreover, the doctor who diagnosed him missed a crucial opportunity for counseling, leaving him overwhelmed with fear.
Hanumant’s story rehashes the fact that the healthcare system needs a paradigm shift.
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It should prioritize preventive, promotive, and rehabilitative care alongside curative services. This reduces pressure on overburdened secondary and tertiary healthcare systems. Additionally, healthcare professionals need to be trained to provide empathetic care that goes beyond merely providing services.
Communication is key
Effective communication about available services, ensuring their provision, and guaranteeing their quality are crucial for achieving the right to health. For example, last year in the Dharashiv district of Maharashtra, Mission Anandi was launched, aimed at screening and detection of cancer among women who are above 30 years of age. Surprisingly even though screening for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) has been part of the national program since 2016, many women weren’t aware of it and got themselves screened only after the launch of the scheme.
Not only this, many of those suspected to be at risk could not get themselves checked due to lack of diagnostic services available within the district. This reiterates the need of the healthcare system to shift from the traditional Maternal and Child health (MCH) and common communicable diseases to a more comprehensive approach to include NCDs, mental health and other services as envisioned under Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS) emphasizes the disparity. Indicators like mothers receiving adequate prenatal care (58.1%) and institutional births (88.6%) stand in stark contrast to the single-digit performance of cancer screenings (1.9% for cervical, 0.9% for breast, and 0.9% for oral).
Embrace the bottom-up approach
The entire health machinery is geared towards meeting the targets for a particular program because the priorities of the health system are determined by the state or the centre. It is this very approach which needs to change. A bottom-top approach needs to be in place where the demand-generation comes from the population with a system strengthened in tandem to meet their demands.
This is not an insurmountable hurdle to climb either.
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There are some ‘low-hanging fruit’ the government can focus on to move towards achieving the ‘Right to Health’ for all. Empowering the population with health information and education is one. Also, ensuring quality healthcare services, prioritizing preventive and diagnostic care alongside curative services, and making health insurance schemes affordable and accessible for all citizens are others.
Sushma’s tragedy is a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done. By bridging the gaps in healthcare access, communication and service delivery, we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
The lead image shows how a health worker checks the blood pressure of a woman at a health checkup camp. (Photo from Shutterstock)
Dr. Shirish Ghadi is working with Transform Rural India as Specialist (Health) in Maharashtra.
