By: Jyoti Pande Lavakore
India is grapples with the challenge of providing health care to millions who can't afford or have access to health care. This is especially true in rural and remote areas of India. Access to healthcare is a problem because of the large population and shortage of doctors. It is more acute in rural areas. The WHO recommend that there be 1 qualified health practitioner for every 1,000 people but in rural areas of India there is 1 doctor to 30,000 people. One initiative that is taking place is one that acts as pilot program. It joins the IKP Center for Technologies and a local non-profit service called Sughavazhvu Health Care. They have set up well equipped health centers that provide a broad range of services, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, anemia, oral health, reproductive care and ophthalmic care and even mental health counseling. It currently runs seven facilities. There is a push to train the large talent pool of doctors who are trained in Ayurdeda, Unani and Siddha medicine to practice conventional medicine and recieve training to do so. If they are able to do this then they will be able to act as independent care providers in rural areas. This way rural areas will not have solely depend on people who are not always fully qualified to treat them such as elders, midwives, doulas and untrained health workers and accredited social health activist. This is a positive way to deal with the large population and limited resources deficit. They can also preserve traditional and cultural health practices.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/indias-hidden-health-care-labor-force/
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