Manish Rathi's Blog

Many of you might find this to be slightly away from usual categories of topics which I typically blog upon. Over the last few years, having gone through some experiences and having had interesting conversations with many in the area who are associated with healthcare (both as a provider and consumer) – made me think a lot of about how healthcare is being dealt with in India. When I say how it is dealt with – I mean really at the ground level. I mean how people like me (as a consumer) get what we need from healthcare perspective and also how majority of providers like my brother provide their services.

Before I write further, let me say that I come from a family of doctors.  My Uncle is a practicing Medical Practitioner. In my generation, my brother and his wife are. Many of my childhood friends are also now in this profession. So if you were to visit my folks, it is very common to participate and hear conversations around various healthcare issues and practices around the dinner table.  So needless to say that I have nothing but respect for the providers of medical services.

Although I referred myself as a Consumer above, let me confess that I am not completely sure if I can characterize myself as the majority of consumers of medical services in India. As a consumer of any service  (and this applies to products too), one has to figure out which particular service fits his/her needs; search for who can best provide it; and then have the service to be delivered in the best possible manner. Majority of the medical services consumers in India go through this on a day-to-manner. For me this process, however, has typically been very simplified. A phone call to my brother or uncle; I know what I have to do next and where I have to go; and I have the access to the best possible service. However, when I talk with many of my friends and colleagues – I do realize that I probably may not completely match with the most common persona of a typical medical consumer in India. They go through a different drill. However, I also find myself having the ability to understand what are the challenges and possibilities of an efficient healthcare system and what it means for both the Consumers and the Providers.

Healthcare in India as a ‘Product’ has grown leaps and bounds over the years in India. However, as a ‘Service’, my opinion is that Healthcare Services in India – not just from Providers side and but also to the same extent even from the Consumers side too – needs a serious relook (and in many scenarios – a reboot!).  To a large extent Healthcare Services in India seems be centered around the Provider i.e. the Doctor. But as any successful consumer offering in the world would tell you – this service needs to be around the individual who needs it – the Patient.  Please note that when I refer to a Service – I am not just referring to a scenario simply about how a patient gets treated by a doctor – but the complete process of how the consumer (patient in this case) goes through the process of figuring out what he/she suffers from; services best for them and their providers; and then getting the best and optimal service delivery. On my blog I am keen in communicating some of my thoughts on this topic and also getting your inputs on the same. I will be writing many posts on this topic going forward.

This week, I am also happy to see that my brother – Dr. Mukesh Rathi – also starting his own blog. As I had mentioned above, he and his wife are practicing Gynacelogists with a very modern setup along with a recurparting hospital. Whenever Mukesh and I meet – in addition to various conversations around our families and our work – we also talk a lot about what he is seeing happening around in the healthcare system today; how is the medical profession changing today; what kind of opportunities and challenges he sees around; and more specifically what it means to the consumers/patients in India. I am hoping that I will be seeing many such thoughts posted by Mukesh on his blog. You can read his blog at http://www.drmukeshrathi.com.

More on this topic in future blogs.

Tags: Dr. Mukesh Rathi, Healthcare Consumers, Healthcare in India

This entry was posted on July 12, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Healthcare in India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.