Private health sector in India: Let's not confuse the issues

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7528.1339-a

BMJ 2005;331:1339 (3 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7528.1339-a

Letter

Private health sector in India

Let's not confuse the issues

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EDITOR—Sengupta and Nundy argue that the private healthsector in India is burgeoning at the expense of public healthcare,¹ but the two issues cannot be muddled together.

Credit: BELINDA LAWLEY/PANOS

We cannot wait for potable drinking water and electricity toreach every village before we design and build rockets. Developmentin different areas should proceed simultaneously, and this shouldbe borne in mind in the healthcare industry. Foreign exchangeearned by medical tourism will certainly boost India's economy,which will in turn raise the standard of healthcare systems.What is needed is a systematic approach to make sure that apart of the funds earned is channelled to primary health care.

Raising the allocation in the budget for health is definitelycalled for, but not at the cost of a new source of nationalincome.

T D Rajan, consultant in skin and sexually transmitted diseases

CMPH Medical College, Mumbai, India rajan.td@gmail.com

Competing interests: None declared.