NEW DELHI, Apr 18:
Medical experts representing public and private sector have underscored the need to re-introduce Indian Medical Services, akin to Indian Administrative Service, to boost the public healthcare sector and address the wide gap between demand and delivery.
They have submitted a five-point agenda to the Government to roll-out of IMS.
Think Change Forum (TCF), an independent think tank dedicated to generating new ideas and finding solutions for navigating through a new changing world recently held a panel discussion titled ‘Is it time for India to resurrect Indian Medical Services?’.
The discussion highlighted the imperative of strengthening the public healthcare system and emphasised the pivotal role that IMS can play in achieving this objective.
The IMS will help bring the sheen and trust back to public health sector which has been lost to private sector; help stop brain drain from public medical services by attracting and retaining the best medical talent; allow for superior healthcare outcomes with better managed facilities and processes, as no longer generalists will be managing the specialists, the experts at the panel discussion said.
It will reduce health crises and reduction in tertiary cases by improved preventive healthcare at primary levels and enable seamless coordination between states and the centre for healthcare policy making.
The IMS was present during the British era but was discontinued after Independence. Current Government has made commendable efforts in healthcare and has implemented impactful schemes like Ayushman Bharat.
However, still the gap is huge, requiring systemic changes, the experts noted.
In the five-point agenda, the experts have emphasised an excessive reliance on the private sector for meeting healthcare demands of Indian citizens.
Overall, the healthcare infrastructure is fractured and falls short of providing quality and effective healthcare at scale. These shortcomings primarily stem from inefficient bureaucratic management rather than lack of skills among healthcare professionals. An IMS will help bring the sheen and trust back to the public health sector which has been lost to the private sector, they said.
Dr Rajesh Gupta, Additional Director, Pulmonology and Critical Care, Fortis Healthcare, Noida, said, “The majority of the Indian public relies on the private sector for healthcare services, with 60 per cent of inpatient admissions (IPDs) and 80 per cent of outpatient visits (OPDs) occurring in private facilities.”
The second point highlighted challenges in staffing the public healthcare system with skilled doctors. Lack of incentives for these highly educated professionals to work under generalist administrators has resulted in brain drain.
To retain quality doctors and ensure health security for the population, there is an urgent need to establish IMS, which will help stop brain drain from public medical services by attracting and retaining the best medical talent, the expert said. (PTI)
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