The government should move quickly on plans for universal healthcare access and renew its focus on public health infrastructure and the healthcare delivery system, according to Tapan Ray, director general, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI).

In his welcome address at a seminar recently held in Mumbai titled “Access to Healthcare – Challenges and the Way Forward", he said "Access to healthcare is a subject of immense significance for India particularly with the increasing incidences of new diseases in the country, from cancer and diabetes to chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular diseases. We need to ensure that Indians not only get prompt and easy physical access to healthcare facilities but also that they can also afford the treatment. This can only be done by reducing the out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure in India, which is currently as high as 75 per cent."

The event brought together distinguished professionals, experts, policy makers and other stakeholders from the Indian healthcare industry and allied sectors to share their vision and key insights about how the overall status of healthcare access can be improved in the country.

A recent ground-breaking study “Understanding Healthcare Access in India – What is the Current State?” by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics has revealed that the out-of-pocket expenditure for both outpatient and inpatient treatments in the country can be reduced by as much as 45 per cent by addressing four critical dimensions of healthcare access such as, physical accessibility and location of healthcare facilities , availability and capacity of needed resources, quality and functionality of service required for patient treatment and affordability of treatment relative to a patient’s income.

The comprehensive IMS study, based on a survey of nearly 15,000 households across 12 states along with 1,000 doctors and experts, has revealed that while progress has been made in India over the past decade by both public and private sector initiatives, significant challenges persist in providing quality healthcare on an equitable, accessible and affordable basis across all regions and communities.

Providing insights into the Indian healthcare market to improve access, Amit Backliwal, managing director, IMS Health Information & Consulting Services, said: “Inadequate resourcing and financing of the public sector health infrastructure negatively impacts the availability of healthcare workers and creates a poor perception of public health facilities. This forces the rural poor to seek costlier treatment options, which in turn adversely impacts overall healthcare access. This study is an important step in advancing the cause of healthcare access in India. It helps develop a road map to improve availability, affordability and performance levels."

Delivering the inaugural address, Ranjit Shahani, president, OPPI, and vice chairman and managing director, Novartis, said, “While the IMS Study provides a valuable information tool for policy makers and the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry as a whole, the presence of so many stakeholders here today for the seminar signals an acceptance of the need to align efforts to advance healthcare access for all Indians.”