Issues in particular with Rural healthcare

  • Only 11% sub-centres, 13% Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and 16% Community Health Centres (CHCs) in rural India meet the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).
  • Only one allopathic doctor is available for every 10,000 people and one state run hospital is available for 90,000 people.
  • Innocent and illiterate patients or their relatives are exploited, and they are allowed to know their rights.
  • Most of the centres are run by unskilled or semi-skilled paramedics and doctor in the rural setup is rarely available.
  • Patients when in emergency sent to the tertiary care hospital where they get more confused and get easily cheated by a group of health workers and middlemen.
  • Non-availability of basic drugs is a persistent problem of India’s rural healthcare.
  • In many rural hospitals, the number of nurses is much less than required.