Over the years, the world has seen levels of medical innovation and its evolution. In just a few generations, we have developed antibiotics, x-rays, organ transplants, the mapping of the human genome and the digitisation of many medical functions. Not only breakthrough technologies but patient experience, medical administration and health care operations have also evolved. Patients are increasingly getting in control of their own healthcare experience, collecting real-world data on their wrists and pushing for personalised care from a care team. These trends are sure to have a major impact on health care systems for years to come. Several further developments and healthcare reforms will be instrumental in shaping sustainable solutions for our present major health care issues.
For the welfare of its citizens, governments have also come up with several healthcare reforms. Some have been successful while others have backfired. For example, the Canadian government introduced reforms that have focused on primary health care delivery, including setting up more community primary health care centres that provide on-call services around-the-clock. This has helped ease the access to healthcare for the common man. On the contrary, Russia originally had a healthcare model where it provided free basic medical care to its citizens. The government later decided to shift to a public-private model between 1989-1993 when it was taken down. This model covered 90 per cent of the population. However, medical institutions had soon begun to extract gifts or donations for basic medical care.
Wendy Parmet, a Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law at Northeastern University, has emphasised on the importance of healthcare. She has stated that it is something that affects everyone at some stage in their lives, particularly at some of our most profound moments. Hence, it is of the utmost importance that a nation has a good healthcare policy as a part of its plans to tackle situations like at present where deaths due to COVID-19 are rising globally.
Harman Singh