Awards recognise pvt sector role in healthcare

"The soul of India lives in its villages," said Mahatma Gandhi. Sixty-five years since Independence, around 68.84 percent of India, approximately 833.1 million people still live in 640,867 villages. One of their most important needs is a strong healthcare infrastructure.

To recognise and award hospitals who work continuously and tirelessly to provide better healthcare CNBC-TV18 in association with ICICI Lombard instituted the India Healthcare Awards in 2010.
India has only 13,000 hospitals catering to a population of over one billion. The patient-to-bed ratio of 0.9 for every 1,000 people is pathetic. The doctor-patient ratio stands at 0.6 for every 1,000.
Though the government has understood the importance of healthcare very late, it has committed to increase the healthcare spend to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan from the current 1 percent. Besides, the National Rural Health Mission was introduced in 2005 to improve the infrastructure and healthcare system in collaboration with the state government.
Over the years, many healthcare institutions have come forward to make a difference to the healthcare sector. In India, around 70 percent of the healthcare delivery segment is managed by private participants. These institutions have to work doubly hard to make even a small difference to the healthcare scenario.