​Dr. Praveen Kulkarni, Doctor of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at JSS Medical College, visited PHRII as a guest speaker on May 9th. I chose to write about this particular speaker because he focused his lecture on India’s health care systems, which ultimately provided me with a necessary foundation of knowledge on health care for the rest of my study abroad in India. This talk took place early in our first week of visiting, so now writing on my third week, I realize how important this talk really was. He broke down health problems in India into 3 easy categories: communicable diseases (transmittable), non-communicable (non-transmittable) diseases, and maternal and child health problems. Health care systems are divided into 5 sectors: public (primary health care hospitals and health centers), private (private hospitals, polyclinics, nursing homes, dispensaries, general practitioners, and clinics), indigenous (ayurveda, yoga, siddha, unani, tibbi, homeopathy, and unregistered practitioners), voluntary agencies (missionary work), and national programmes (National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), National AIDS Control Programme, Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), Pulse Polio Immunization Programme).

 

Most of the lecture was spent discussing public vs. private healthcare systems. Dr. Kulkarni stated that the universal definition of primary health care is as follows, “an essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self reliance and self-determination.” The public health care delivery system can be divided into 3 tiers: primary secondary, and tertiary. In primary health care delivery you can find the village level, where there is an Asha, a female resident aged between 25 - 45 yrs responsible for 1,000 people. She provides health care support for pregnant women, minor diseases and injuries, creates awareness, etc. Sub-centers are responsible for 5,000 people with the help of a Junior Health Assistant Male (JHAM) and a Junior Health Assistant Female (JHAF). Primary health centers, final level in primary health care, consist of a medical officer with a team of health workers responsible for 30,000 people. The secondary tier of health care has community health centers, handling a population of 80,000 - 120,000 people, and First Referral Unit (FRU) hospitals, population of 300,000 people, where a majority of specialists can be found. The tertiary tier of healthcare holds district hospitals, offering the highest numbers of specialists in healthcare to a population of 500,000 people.  

 

Throughout the weeks we have also learned a lot about health care disparities, thus this lecture put pieces into place. I have focused my studies on tribal villages and my previous media critique explains just a few health concerns within these communities. With that being said, many people in villages never even make it to a primary health center because of issues with transportation and distrustful beliefs about free health care. Thus, much less will they visit a district hospital.

first hand, healthcare accessibility is still very difficult for many people in India, especially rural communities. I worked with I have seen private hospitals with specialists available in India, but they pricey in comparison to public institutes. In addition, I learned about a very unique type of medicine, Ayurveda, which is used and established in its own hospitals, where I visited, here in India. Although there are many types of hospitals and uses of health care services being used in India that I have seen and experiencePHRII on one of their community health camps where we traveled to a village for  women to receive free cervical cancer screenings. I have also traveled hours away from mysore into the rural communities of India to see what kinds of services are offered. We were able to travel to a mobile clinic which offered essential and necessary health care.

 

After this amazing hands on study abroad, I have expanded all my knowledge on global health and realized that as a student I could contribute to these institutes and non-profit organizations by creating awareness and fundraising money to continue offering these services and possibly even broaden the services offered. This would be the easiest way to start helping out because individuals everywhere could spare the change they leave in there car cup holders for a greater good. Every and any amount counts!