Health care system of India is well versed to deal with a pandemic like COVID-19 !

India’s healthcare system is well equipped to deal with COVID-19 pandemic besides taking care of the other basic needs of the poor people. The weaknesses of the lopsided health systems of several countries have also been exposed at this time of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, according to Indian Medical Association (IMA).

IMA stated that the country is on the threshold and is fighting a COVID-19 war with the concerted effort of epidemiologists, public health specialists, virologists and anesthetists amongst others. It is the services and hard work of these specialists that is going to win the war.

“A network of public health institutions with primary care focus and outreach capabilities, 600 medical colleges, 600 plus district hospitals, hundreds of thousands of family physicians and specialists, a strong chain of secondary care hospitals and nursing homes, national centres of excellence like AIIMS and an ubiquous private tertiary care gives the complete picture of health care available to our people,” says Rajan Sharma, national president, IMA.

India today is the frontier of medicine. The stature of India’s healthcare system is for everyone to see. Moreover, whatever has been achieved has been achieved in shoestring budgets of several decades.

Rajan Sharma added, “We have one million plus fully qualified modern medicine doctors with adequately represented specialities and super specialities. No other country is better endowed than India. The medical education of India has withstood tests of time and has produced the finest doctors in the world. Qualified and competent doctors should handle caring of all citizens. We trust the government is fully capable of correcting such deviance. As a matter of fact, Indian doctors are the major health systems of the world.”

A senior official of Niti Aayog has indicated that professionalization of medical education is expensive and cost cutting was in order.

IMA recently started IMA Psycho-Social counseling helpline for doctors, nurses and healthcare workers engaged in the treatment of COVID-19.This will be manned by a team of 16 renowned psychologists and psychiatrists.

Reference: Pharmabiz