Review Article
The Challenges Confronting Public Hospitals in India, Their Origins, and Possible Solutions
Table 1
Comparison between “ten-year plan,” the “three-million plan” and the presently available health infrastructure.
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Note: the “three-million plan” laid down the required health infrastructure to provide for the health needs of an average district in India having a population of three million. This was to be implemented over a period of three to four decades. Anticipating resource constraints, both in terms of manpower and money to make such an infrastructure available in a short time, the committee recommended a shorter “ten-year plan” to be implemented first. Source: details of the “ten-year plan” and “three-million plan” have been obtained from chapters III and IV of the Government of India [1]: “Report of the Health Development and Survey Committee (Bhore Committee), Vol. II,” Government of India Press. *In the “ten-year plan,” the Bhore committee did not recommend setting up of a district level tertiary health set-up. Instead, 4 of the 200-bed secondary units in the districts were to be elevated to the level of 500-bed secondary units. **Figures obtained from Table 11 of the “Rural Health Bulletin, 2012,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India [2]. #Figure has been obtained by dividing the total population of the country in 2011 by the number of district hospitals. ##Obtained from Rural Health Bulletin, 2012, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare [2]. Figures in parenthesis are the beds per thousand population set to be achieved in the “ten-year plan” and “three-million plan” and the ratio at present in India. |