Published on 13 Feb 2025
Primary health care is an approach which focuses on the health needs throughout the lifespan of the person, not just for a set of specific diseases. It ensures people receive comprehensive care, ranging from prevention to treatment and rehabilitation, thus covering the entire aspect of health.
Significance of Primary health care
✔ Preventive health care: Increased focus on preventive healthcare can reduce the chance of occurrence of disease and bring down the out-of-pocket expenditure.
● Example: Increased push for preventive healthcare in India, with the sector’s market value expected to reach around $197 billion by 2025 (According to a report released by Redseer Strategy Consultants).
✔ Early detection and treatment: Periodic check-ups and screening, which are part of primary health care, aid in timely intervention and thus reduces the impact of diseases.
● Example: Early detection and prevention in one’s 20’s can delay or prevent heart diseases by around 43%.
✔ Reduce health disparity: Better primary care through primary health centres in rural areas can reduce the disparity in health coverage between urban and rural India.
● Example: Only 13% of the rural population has access to primary health centres (NCBI data)
✔ Cost effectiveness: The investment to output ratio is low for primary health care when compared to tertiary health care, which requires a much higher budget.
● Example: In India, the out-of-pocket expenditure is around 47% in 2018-19 as per Economic Survey 2022-23.
✔ Community engagement: Involvement of community can bring better health awareness among the locals, which motivates them to lead a healthy lifestyle.
✔ Promote holistic health: Primary health care is not just addressing physical health but also offers integrated and comprehensive health coverage.
● Example: Promotion of wellness centres can prevent cognitive decline, reduce stress, ensure better sleep and aid in overall health of a person.
Challenges to the growth of primary health care in India
✔ Infrastructure deficit: Lack of facilities at primary health centres and community health centres has prevented the public from accessing these institutions.
● Example: As per the Rural Health Statistics 2020, there is 38% shortfall in community health centres and 29% shortfall in Primary health centres.
✔ Shortage of healthcare professionals: Wide demand-supply deficit in the number of doctors and nurses in primary care institutions causes delay in addressing medical cases.
● Example: According to the Rural Health Statistics report, there is an 80% shortfall of specialist doctors in community health centres.
✔ Limited focus on preventive health: Less emphasis on preventive care, both among public and health professionals, has increased the burden of preventable diseases.
● Example: According to a study report by ICMR, more than 60% of death in India are due to Non-communicable diseases, with the majority of them being preventable.
✔ Healthcare inequality: The accessibility to quality primary care has been unequal, on regional, social and economic grounds.
✔ Lack of integration with traditional medicine: Modern healthcare systems have failed to integrate with traditional medicines, which hinder holistic primary health coverage.
How to improve primary healthcare in India
✔ Promotion of telemedicine: To increase the accessibility of healthcare to remote areas where there is shortage of healthcare supply.
✔ Health workforce development: Recruit and train more healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and community health workers.
✔ Promotion of preventive care: Start more health and wellness centres for early detection and management of chronic diseases.’
✔ Involvement of private sector: Encourage private sector to participate in the government health programmes to leverage their expertise and resources.
India's health sector needs to be strengthened from the grassroots level, and investing in primary health care is one of the primary steps towards developing a healthy India.
Social Justice
Primary healthcare
preventive healthcare
General Studies Paper 2
Social Justice
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