Health care in India skewed towards urban residents: Study

The provision of health care services in India is skewed towards urban residents who constitute about one-third of the country's population, a new study says.

Urban residents, who make up 28 percent of India's population, have access to 66 percent of the country's available hospital beds, according to the study by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics released here Friday.

The study also shows that the distribution of healthcare providers including doctors, nurses and pharmacists is highly concentrated in urban areas and the private sector.

The physical reach of any health care facility is a challenge in rural areas, particularly for patients with chronic ailments. Patients in rural areas must travel more than five km to access an in-patient facility 63 percent of the time, the study found.

Patients in rural areas face difficulty in accessing transportation options and loss of earning as a result of travel time to reach facilities for treatment, it says.

Private health care facilities are being used by an increasing proportion of patients due to gaps in quality and availability of public facilities.

Availability of doctors is a key reason for selecting private facility outpatient treatment.

The study goes on to say that the cost of treatment at private health care facilities is between two and nine times higher than at public facilities, thus leading to debt burden on the poor.

"Improving the quality and availability of public health care facilities drive the greatest reduction in patient out-of-pocket costs," said Amit Backliwal, country head of IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.