Good medicine

An overhaul is overdue. When the talk turns to India’s healthcare system, on that much at least there is no doubt or debate. How the country ought to undertake the task is a little more complicated. Resources and their utilisation, systems and processes, people and mindsets — getting the equation right on all of these is vital if we are to swim in healthier waters. Government interventions and institutional frameworks are the key factor in reviving hope and dispelling despair, and support from every branch of civil society a necessary contribution in making that happen. The Tata Trusts have been striving to play just such a role with their across-the-spectrum programmes in the health sector, most recently in the combined effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic. By Philip Chacko and Gayatri Kamath