Village Hospitals: Consistent Solutions are the Need of the Hour
Village Hospital most of important, India is a country where a significant section of the nation's population lives in the village. The progress and development of our country depend on the improved living conditions in rural areas where all the meaningful life supportive facilities, including healthcare facilities, will be adequately available for one and all. The places in Indian villages are surrounded by poverty, diseases, as well as lack of cleanliness. Even there is no proper drainage facility, and most of the drains are squalid. Due to a lack of facilities and improper management in rural areas, people living in villages are suffering a lot due to various chronic diseases.
In India, we can find diversity in clothes, languages, beliefs, religion, art, food, traditions, music, climates, features, population, geographical structures, environment, and living conditions. Even though the diversity of such a large extent increases our richness in terms of heritage and culture, it adheres with definite complications, too. It primarily creates obstacles in the path of the infrastructural progression of the nation.
Fortunately, we are living in a country of unity in diversification, but this unity has been affected by many external factors. To ride ahead by maintaining this unity, we should consider giving pace to the growth and development of the country and its citizens. The crucial element of this growth & evolution is infrastructure principally of rural regions where this element lacks the most.
As of 2019, Overall, there are 6, 64,369 villages in India. In the 2011 census of India, 6, 49, 481 villages got recorded. The increase in the number of villages demands an increase in the availability of resources. Developed rural infrastructure has the potential to bring improvement in the quality of life. The poorly developed health infrastructure in rural areas would pose a severe threat to the lives of the population dwelling in underdeveloped rural areas.
The entire village infrastructure revolves around the following points-
All these constituents are interconnected with each other. Suppose if you aspire to render Health Facilities in village areas, it must have effective connectivity with existing communication facilities. Digital reach is one of the vital requirements. To recognize these elements, one must at least obtain minimum essential education. And you require proper safety and the setting to get this much qualification.
Reality of Healthcare in Rural Parts of India
Healthcare is not only for affluent people, but it's the right of every single person. However, the lack of better infrastructure on qualitative terms, lack of accessibility to medical facilities and medicines required in daily life and the scarcity of qualified medical specialists have prevented the healthcare facilities from reaching 60% of the Indian population. Medical facilities are mostly deplorable in village areas. Quality healthcare services must reach every village, and everyone must get these benefits irrespective of financial condition.
The pressing need of the hour is to follow new methods and procedures in order to ensure that superior quality-based healthcare facilities must reach the deprived regions of villages of India. Even though the Indian government runs several programs and policies, gaps in the implementation part have put the question mark on the successful outcomes concerning these policies and programs. In rural parts of the country, there is a scarcity of primary health care centers, around 8% of health care centers lack medical staff or doctors in number, 39% of them are running without a team of lab technicians, and 18% of them got deprived of a pharmacist.
According to the United Nations' child mortality estimates, in 2018, there were 7, 21,000 infant deaths reported all over India. Structural concerns such as lack of transportation facilities, delays in taking patients to hospitals, and inability to provide them with immediate treatments and lack of basic facilities at primary health care centers have increased infant death cases. Besides medical aspects, infant deaths result from more profound social issues such as sanitation, starvation, and immunization.
Three-Tier System of Health Care in Rural Parts of India
The three-tier system of health care in rural parts of India are-
Besides these profound compositions, there is a shortage of trained and proficient doctors in villages. So, the village natives don't have sufficient medical facilities. Most of them are so vulnerable that they cannot get themselves treated by skilled doctors in cities. There are high-grade hospitals in cities, but the poor villagers cannot go to these hospitals due to the circumstantial challenges and difficulties. So, they are treated and prescribed by unskilled doctors. Many villagers die of several diseases owing to a deficit of good doctors in villages.
In 2017, the infant mortality rate in India's rural parts was 37 per thousand live nativities, and that was also when India brought a reduction in its IMR (infant mortality rate) by 42% over 11 years- from 57 per 1000 live nativities in the year 2006 to 33 in the year 2017, according to the government data released on 30th of May, 2019.
Despite the decline in cases, India's infant mortality rate in 2017 remained more than the global 29.4, the rate being equivalent to that of the West African Nation of Senegal & more than most of the South Asian neighbors except that of Myanmar and Pakistan. If there will be a good number of well-maintained hospitals in villages, the lives of thousands of people living in rural areas may be saved. Although we have lived many decades after independence, we still have a desire for well-equipped hospitals in rural parts of India.
As per the 2016 interim reports of the Indian government, in India, the maternal mortality rate is 130 per 1 lakh live births. There should be a qualified doctor, some compounders, nurses, as well as peons in a village hospital to make frequent visits to patients. Some patients require proper care, so the provision of well-furnished beds in special wards has also become a concerning topic. There must be a female ward in hospitals.
Most of the villagers live in a poverty-stricken environment wherein they can't buy medicines for them and their families. So, there needs to be a methodical arrangement for the supply of free medicines to impoverished patients living in village areas. The doctors performing their responsibilities in village hospitals must be understanding and sensitive. They must possess the spirit of service to treat the diseases and teach the villagers the rules of healthy living and cleanliness. In this way, they can block diseases to occur and spread and render valuable service to the villagers.
The Role of Hindrise Foundation has Witnessed an Increase
Amid COVID-19 pandemic, the role and responsibilities of Hindrise Foundation have extended up to a great extent. The whole world is waging a fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, but what about those areas that lacks the ambulance facility to reach affordable hospitals or healthcare centers? What has increased the problem for people living in rural areas are support operations to tackle the healthcare-related issues.
Coming to the nation's major cities, we can say that they are providing ventilators, facilities of bed, along with a special hospital for COVID-19 affected people. However, small towns or village areas are still striving to get the necessary healthcare facilities. At Hindrise Social Welfare Foundation, we are helping the victims of COVID-19 pandemic and other patients with health issues of different types by increasing the accessibility of healthcare facilities with the cooperation of hospitals and medical centers.
Distribution of ration kits, Uniquely-built masks, hand sanitizers, etc. have been the part of our humanitarian activities amid COVID-19 pandemic to uplift those degraded souls who are unable to take the burden of initiating their medical treatment as well as the treatment of their family members. We are still continuously working all day and night to maximize our support and reach most of the poverty-stricken families.
There is a necessity for hospitals in villages, and the time has come to work on it on the priority. To solve fund-related concerns, the Government can adopt the model of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to create if not world-class, at least competent and efficient hospitals. Hindrise Foundation, an NGO for social welfare in India, aims to participate in this sphere and work in a tireless way to accomplish its debts to society.