Health First
The health scenario of the city of Gurgaon, as a growing metropolitan hub of the National Capital Region of India, presents a vibrant and multi-colored picture with exceptional success stories and prevalent problems. This region, with its history of rapid economic development and multinational company presence, has witnessed heavily augmented health infrastructure catering to local as well as foreign patients. But although such development was initiated, shortcomings in availability, affordability, and quality follow, rendering such a healthcare sector one of compounded complexity. A glimpse of the health scenario in Gurgaon indicates a combination of internationally comparable private hospitals, speciality clinics, and new digital health startups in the background of an imperative for improved public healthcare infrastructure and universal access to care for all segments of society.
Private healthcare in Gurgaon is a reflection of the economic growth of the city, with an emphasis on super-speciality hospitals with state-of-the-art technology and class-one doctors. Such hospitals offer a plethora of services ranging from organ transplantations and complex surgery to sophisticated imaging and speciality care. They handle growing numbers of wealthy citizens, expats, and medical tourists who are in search of quality treatments. The existence of such quality clinics has turned Gurgaon into a medical tourism hub, where patients from other neighbouring states and even foreign nations visit for medical treatment. This patient flow has also served to further fuel the expansion of the private healthcare sector, with the consequence that there has been continued investment in technology and infrastructure.
But the dominance of the private healthcare sector has also created a radical health access gap. While the well-off communities have access to class-one health facilities, the majority of the population, particularly the peri-urban and rural dwellers, are struggling to reach basic health facilities. Government health centers and primary health centers, the government-run health centers, are marred with the shortage of infrastructure, unqualified medical staff, and fewer resources. This unequal access has filled the government health facilities with patients to capacity and over-drawn private clinics, which some of them become unaffordable to the lower tier. The government needs to make a move in the form of a combined effort to unify the public healthcare system and make the government-owned healthcare facilities more productive.
The rise in digital health programs is also changing the face of Gurgaon healthcare. Telemedicine, cyber consultation, and mobile health technologies are becoming increasingly visible as readily accessible, convenient solutions for healthcare. They become a rescue for chronically disorder persons, rural residing persons, and second opinion seekers. Penetration of technology in healthcare delivery is also contributing to the empowerment of the patient and in convincing the patients to take a more proactive role in taking care of themselves. But the digital divide, in which the internet and digital literacy are withheld from all segments of people, is disrupting the universal application of digital health solutions.
Medical manpower of Gurgaon includes:
A mix of highly qualified doctors and lack of specialized staff.
Despite the world’s finest medical brains coming to the area, more trained allied health professionals, paramedics, and nurses are needed. The most serious shortage is for well-trained health professionals in the public health care facilities and public hospitals where resource constraints and tough working environments provide poor incentives to bring in well-trained professionals and retain them. To fill the gap and ensure quality services in all the health care institutions, there must be investment in training programs and health education.
Prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer is a fast-emerging condition in Gurgaon. Physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, and high stress are a causative factor in increasing cases of NCDs. Preventive healthcare programs such as health consciousness campaigns, screening programs, and lifestyle modification programs need to be introduced to fight the issue. Public health strategies for prevention of unhealthy living and prevention of NCDs have to be raised to achieve highest overall well-being of the citizens.
Sanitation and environmental hygiene are also integral parts in Gurgaon’s healthcare model. Urbanization and industrialization have led to creation of humongous volumes of wastes and unforeseen volumes of pollution, and these are biggest reasons behind risk to health. Pollution control strategies, sound waste management systems, and environmental health programs need to be embraced to manage these risks and encourage healthy living conditions. Environmental health factors need to be incorporated in urban planning and development in order to enhance the long-term sustainability of the regional health care system.
PPP role is emerging into the spotlight as a sign to address the health care requirements of Gurgaon. PPPs enable the public and private sectors to leverage each other’s comparative advantages towards improved provision of health care, improved access, and improved quality of provision. Public-private partnerships between government agencies, private health care providers, and non-government agencies can enhance the evolution of innovative solutions to healthcare as well as effective utilization of resources.
By and large, the health environment in Gurgaon is a dynamic, complex system with both massive achievements and ingrained problems. The region’s world-class private health care and expanding digital health initiatives offer massive opportunities to improve health care delivery. But solving the unequal access, enhancing the public health infrastructure, and addressing the rising NCD burden are essential to the achievement of equitable and sustainable care for all the inhabitants of the region. The sustained efforts at enhancing healthcare infrastructure, enhancing the capacity of workforce, and promoting preventive care will be a part of ensuring the future of healthcare in Gurgaon.