Cancellation of hospital licences will not fix India's healthcare problem

From Delhi to Gorakhpur, the government has to elucidate its proper role in health care, and those in charge have to recognize their own responsibilities

Recent incidents of expensive healthcare and medical negligence have brought the focus back on poor healthcare facilities in the country. In one case a family was handed over a huge bill while in the other an infant was wrongly declared dead. Do these incidents point to the shortcomings of our healthcare system and policy making? Will it help to discipline private healthcare providers through punitive action like cancelling their licences? The writer takes a look at the policy challenges and how the situation can be changed.

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Two recent events in Delhi have highlighted the poor state of private healthcare in