Public Health And The Government

a. Most rural areas don’t have trained doctors.

In rural areas, there are only few hospitals and doctors. Thus, it is difficult to find trained doctors in rural areas.

b. sends her child to Anganwadi.

e. Sends letters by post office.

Anganwadi and the post office are the basic public facilities provided by the government to provide the people with service of child care and to avail the sending and receiving of mails respectively. Other options are the personal activities by the individuals.

The sentences in this chapter that argue about the role of the government in providing public health are as follows –

i. Public Health care system is a system of hospitals and health centres run by the government catering to a huge population scattered over lakhs of villages.

ii. The public health service is the system of health centres and hospitals run by the government to provide treatment to all kinds of problems - from common illnesses to special services in both the rural and the urban areas.

iii. Public health system is meant to provide quality health care service either free or at low cost.

iv. These public health services also take care to prevent the spread of the diseases such as TB, malaria, Jaundice, cholera, diarrhoea, chikungunya, etc.

a. TB patients are given free medicines.

b. In some villages clean drinking water facilities are arranged.

c. Shopkeepers selling medicines for cold, fever, headache etc.

a, b, c are the instances of improving health care as the patients suffering from tuberculosis are provided with medicines free of cost. In some of the villages, facility of clean drinking water has been provided by the government. Also, shopkeepers are selling medicines of fever, cold and headache, etc, which is good for the people who couldn’t afford to go to hospitals and get the treatment immediately.

d. The government provides food grains in Fair Price shops.

d is not an instance of improving the healthcare the government provides food grains in Fair Price shops is not an instance of improving the healthcare as it is part of the government scheme of public distribution system to improve the availability of food and making it available to the people who couldn’t afford to buy food due to the high cost.

Imaginary dialogue between Priyamvada and Satyanarayana –

Priyamvada: I run a private hospital. My hospital has more facilities than the government hospital.

Satyanarayana: I am a government doctor working in a mandal. We provide healthcare services to the patient according to his requirement.

Priyamvada: My hospital is hygienic as compared to the government hospital.

Satyanarayana: Even the place where we have organised a camp is hygienic. Hygiene is the first important element that needs to be taken care while providing health care service.

Priyamvada: But we often witness that government hospitals are not hygienic at all. Why is this so?

Satyanarayana: It is because of the fact we provide treatment at low cost or free of cost as compared to the private hospitals. Large number of people come and visits the government hospitals. Overcrowd and a bit of government’s negligence is the reason behind the unhygienic conditions. But why you provide the treatment at such a high cost even the service provided doesn’t cost that much in reality?

Priyamvada: It is because we provide the treatment immediately. The patients don’t have to wait or stand in a queue. The treatment is provided by the specialised doctors and nurses, all are trained in their specific field.

Satyanarayana: The doctors in the villages are also now trained as the government involvement to provide proper healthcare system has been improved considerably.

Priyamvada: We also have private laboratories to conduct urine, blood or stool test also facility of X-ray and ultrasound are available.

Satyanarayana: we send the liquids to test in the nearby government laboratories, where the cost to tests is usually low or free.

Priyamvada: Also, we have medical store which sells medicine on prescription.

Satyanarayana: The medical stores set up by the government sells the medicine at lower rate and sometimes free of cost as compared to private medical stores where the medicine cost is high and it becomes difficult for the poor people to avail to such services.

Priyamvada: We also provide our patients with health insurance.

Satyanarayana: The health insurance is now available to all the people in the public health care system. Government is introducing new health insurance schemes for those who could not afford proper health services.

Yes, Health is not limited to providing medicines. There are various other aspects of health which need to be taken into consideration. These are – clean drinking water, sanitation, clean environment, minimum food, education, and other health facilities such as ambulance services, medical stores, blood banks, laboratories for different tests and qualified doctors and nurses. It is the responsibility of the government, and the residents of our country to see that to have a good health one should have the facility of clean drinking water. This can prevent the individual from water related diseases. Proper sanitation and clean environment is an important aspect of health. If, our environment is clean than there will be hardly any person suffering from poor health. One should clean his/her nearby surroundings, prevent the accumulation of water especially during the rainy season, avail to proper hygienic habits, etc. It is the responsibility of the government to provide the population with minimum nutritious food. This way the individuals especially children will not suffer from any diseases that occurs due to malnutrition or undernourishment. Education is the most important aspect of the health. One could create awareness about the diseases, the causes of particular disease and its prevention simply through education. Government should also provide with the basic health facilities to the people who could not afford proper health services.

Some of the government health welfare schemes and their beneficiaries are –

The various provisions of safe drinking water in my area are as follows: -

i. Nowadays, the clean water is used for cooking rather than only for drinking.

ii. Most of the houses to drink clean water have set up filter system in their houses.

iii. Awareness has been created by the various groups, and the communities to adopt different ways to consume safe drinking water.

iv. These various groups also take care that the water used by the families are safe for drinking and other related activities.

v. Even the water that has channeled to the population through pipes is the chlorine water.